Four Seasons of Displacement by Emily de Gruchy

This concert will feature two arrangements of well-known wartime songs alongside the world premiere of a new symphonic work by Jersey-based composer Emily de Gruchy, commissioned by ArtHouse Jersey.

This new symphonic composition is a narrative exploration of the experience of Wurzach by those forcibly deported British-born Channel Islanders (and their families) to German internment camps from 1942-1945, an experience often underrepresented in the narrative of the Occupation. For 618 British people, two-and-a-half years behind barbed wire was a reality.

This composition depicts this period, using the written accounts of those who lived it. Many musicians of Jersey, British and European descent will come together to perform the work, and the premiere will be a symbolic event celebrating perspectives of the past and present.

This event, together with Structures & Memory (a place called Wurzach) and its accompanying programme of events forms part of Jersey’s official Liberation 80 anniversary programme.