Murry Sidlin

Murry Sidlin, a conductor with a unique gift for engaging audiences, has enjoyed a diverse and distinctive musical career. He is the president and creative director of The Defiant Requiem Foundation, which sponsors live concert performances of “Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín” and “Hours of Freedom: The Story of the Terezín Composer.” The Foundation also sponsors the documentary film “Defiant Requiem,” a new docudrama called “Mass Appeal, 1943” and The Rafael Schächter Institute for Arts and Humanities at Terezín. In addition, he lectures extensively on the arts and humanities as practiced by the prisoners in the Theresienstadt (Terezín) Concentration Camp.

Sidlin began his career as assistant conductor of the Baltimore Symphony under Sergiu Comissiona and then was appointed resident conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra by Antal Doráti. He has served as music director of the New Haven and Long Beach (California) Symphonies, the Tulsa Philharmonic and the Connecticut Ballet. For eight years, he was resident conductor of the Oregon Symphony and, from 2002 to 2010, served as Dean of the School of Music at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He has conducted more than 300 concerts with the San Diego Symphony.

In April 2002, Sidlin presented the first performances of “Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín” in Portland, Oregon and has led nearly 50 performances since then, including three in Terezín. In 2013, Sidlin received the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Medal of Valor for his efforts to keep Rafael Schächter’s memory alive.