Lily Arbisser, a 39-year-old Davenport Central alum, is a New York City-based soprano.
New York City-based soprano Lily Arbisser always loves coming back to her childhood home of the Quad Cities at least annually, and an upcoming, week-long visit will be especially meaningful, capped by a special 6 p.m. concert on Thursday, March 26.
The Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities and the Figge Art Museum co-host this event in honor of a collection of about 70 stringed instruments restored and curated by “Violins of Hope,” an organization started by father/son duo Amnon and Avshalom Weinstein. They're on display now through April at Davenport's Figge, the Putnam Museum & Science Center, and the German American Heritage Center (GAHC).
The Weinsteins' intent is to preserve instruments associated with World War II and the Holocaust, and harken to a time when Jewish populations were thriving in Europe before the war. Some of these instruments were played in unspeakable conditions, and some traveled with their owners out of ghettos and concentration camps to safety in Palestine (now Israel) and elsewhere. All are lovingly stewarded now by Avshi after Amnon’s passing.
Arbisser (a 39-year-old Davenport Central High School alum) and French-Romanian pianist Dimitri Malignan will be joined by violist Deanna Petre for an evening honoring “Violins of Hope.” They will feature music which would have been played in the ghettos and concentration camps (Mozart, Brahms, Puccini, Schumann), music that was suppressed (Mendelssohn, Chopin), and music by composers who were persecuted in World War II and the Holocaust: Dick Kattenburg, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Hans Gál, Simon Laks.
The Figge program is part of a U.S. concert tour with 28-year-old pianist Malignan and his “Missing Voices” project, which seeks to shed light on composers persecuted in the Holocaust. The tour will take Lily and Dimitri also to St. Louis, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota, then back home to New York.
The March 26 concert features works that would have been performed in the Nazi camps. (A Puccini aria, for example, was performed by Fania Fénelon when she was in Birkenau). In March of 2025, Arbisser and Malignan performed at the GAHC in the program “Friendship: Connections in New Lands.”
In 2020, Malignan created “Missing Voices,” dedicated to Jewish composers who were murdered in the Shoah. Through concerts, CDs, exhibitions, and documentary films, he aims to get these talented composers out of the shameful oversight that surrounds them, and bring their music back to life.
Arbisser watched an online documentary Malignan released in 2020, and they’ve partnered in performance the past three years.
“We have a shared passion for this history of World War II-era Jewish composers,” she said recently, noting she was raised in a Reform Jewish household. Yom HaShoah education was a yearly, important event in her upbringing at Temple Emanuel and the Tri-City Jewish Center in the Quad Cities, and Arbisser went on to take a Holocaust literature and film course at Princeton University.
Arbisser graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton with a bachelor’s in art and archaeology and a certificate in vocal performance. She holds a Master of Music degree from Mannes College.
In 2022, she sang the role of Anne Frank in the oratorio Annelise with Princeton Pro Musica, and later that year, was in the cast for the Holocaust-themed 2018 opera Two Remain: Out of Darkness, which was performed at Rock Island's Augustana College. Composer Jake Heggie's and librettist Gene Scheer’s moving two-act opera – part of the QC-wide “Out of Darkness” event series – centers on Holocaust survivors visited by ghosts of their pasts.
“It was a great experience, but it was very hard,” said Arbisser. “It was very intense. And it was so meaningful to me to come and represent my heritage for the Quad Cities with that performance.”
She adds that she admires the variety and depth of performances and organizations involved for both “Out of Darkness” and “Violins of Hope.”
“I think it's so beautiful and so amazing,” Arbisser said, crediting Jewish Federation executive director Allan Ross for coordinating both efforts. “I have so much respect for all of the organizations that have put so much energy into their events and their presentations. And Allan led everyone so beautifully through this opportunity to educate.”
Arbisser’s paternal grandmother was from Vienna, and their family left in 1933, when she was six, after Hitler came to power. But many other relatives stayed and died in the Holocaust.
“Holocaust education is decreasing in frequency and Holocaust denial is increasing, and antisemitism, as we all know, is increasing,” she said. “So we need thoughtful projects like this. And 'Violins of Hope' is a very important message-bringer.”
She also noted the mission overlap between “Missing Voices” and “Violins of Hope,” reflecting Jewish artistry and remembering Holocaust history.
“It's all about education,” Arbisser said. “Dimitri has an endless passion for this topic, and he just continues to meet people who know about people. He continues to help present scores that have never been heard before.”
The pair will also perform locally at a Figge fundraiser March 25, and Dimitri will play a “Casual Classics” concert at Davenport's St. Ambrose University on March 27.
Arbisser, who frequents oratorio and operatic stages, has a deep affinity for art songs. Her broad repertoire includes Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian, Yiddish, Polish, Czech, Hebrew, and contemporary American art songs.
“I do want to honor the lives of the people who are persecuted and murdered in the Holocaust,” she said. “That's why I do this work. But I also need to do it in a very conscious way that doesn't appropriate their stories. That doesn't sort of trap them in a time period. It's important that they have Jewish heritage, but it's also important to recognize that they were full human lives lived before – hopefully also after, if they survived the war. And that the Holocaust was just a part of the story, and being Jewish is just a part of the story.”
Admission to the March 26 Remember Me, Remember Us concert at the Figge Art Museum (225 West Second Street, Davenport IA) is free, the concert starts at 6 p.m., and a full schedule of “Violins of Hope” events is available by visiting ViolinsOfHopeIowa.com.
