Although Dmitri Shostakovich’s song cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry does not have the international acclaim as some of his bigger orchestral works, it still remains one of his most powerful pieces that acted as a vehicle for his artistic and moral resistance against the rise of anti-Semitism in Soviet Russia during the end of Stalin’s life. From Jewish Folk Poetry was first composed in 1948 for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and piano, and then later orchestrated in 1963. In 1948, not only was Shostakovich aware of Stalin’s efforts to destroy Jewish culture which was deemed as a threat to Soviet society, Shostakovich knew the horrors of Nazism and the Holocaust’s attempt to annihilate European Jewry. 1948 was also a significant year because
