As reports of immigration arrests filled the news, this music educator wrote ‘For Anne, in the Attic’

Lifelong music educator Janice Mayfield believes music can speak to any situation, including current events.

Dismayed by the images and news reports of ICE deportation efforts, she channeled her emotion into a choral work titled “For Anne, in the Attic.”

“I was feeling profoundly moved by what’s been happening in the streets,” she explained. “The piece draws parallels between the plight of Anne Frank and the current climate in our country for asylum seekers and immigrants. The parallels were so stark to me.”

As a child in the 1950s, she vividly recalls the horrific Holocaust newsreel images.

“The words kept coming to me – did they know? Did they know?” she said. “I thought about Anne’s life. Her experience was the experience of millions. There are going to be names we remember from this time in history, like Liam (Conejo Ramos) and Renee Good.”

Mayfield sat at her piano and began to write.

“It was a profound experience,” she said.

Her wondering at what bystanders and neighbors thought when Anne Frank and her family were taken from their hiding place echoed her questions about what people across the U.S. are witnessing.

“Do we know? Can we see your eyes filled with fear?” she wrote.

When she finished “For Anne, in the Attic,” she formed a new choir to premiere the three-voice a cappella piece.

“In 2022, I’d started a women’s choir – the Unity Treble Ensemble at Unity Spiritual Center, but I knew I needed a bigger choir.”

She sings with the Le Donne choir, so she distributed a flier at rehearsals. Then she reached out to Deborah Jacquemin, who served as the music director at the Unitarian Universalist Church for 34 years.

“The text really grabbed me,” Jacquemin said after listening to the piece. “It’s a message that needs to get out there. I told her I want to sing alto.”

She made some calls, and Mayfield’s small ensemble grew to a 27-voice women’s choir. The group includes the Weddle Twins, a Spokane vocal duo who regularly perform throughout the Inland Northwest.

“I’m worried about the immigrant situation in this country,” Jacquemin said. “I’m 78. I can’t march or protest anymore, so this is a way for me to have a voice in this issue.”

Simone Ramel-McKay is also gratified to be a part of this choir. She sings in Le Donne alongside Mayfield and, like Jacquemin, she was moved by the text.

“I visited the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam,” she said. “You’d think that this wouldn’t happen again, but now we’re treating people inhumanely. Most of all, I’ve always been someone who believes in fairness.”

She said the women were in tears the first time they sang the piece together, but amplifying its message with their voices allows them to harness their emotions in a meaningful way.

“It’s been a true joy,” Ramel-McKay said. “It’s really rewarding to work with these women. Music has the power to speak truth.”

Mayfield is thankful that Unity Spiritual Center provided rehearsal space and offered a venue for the song’s debut.

“As the composer and director, it has been heavy on my heart to bring this piece to light,” she said. “It’s humbling and powerful to hear the voices—it’s an incredible experience, and it moves me deeply.”

In addition to the upcoming premiere, “For Anne, in the Attic” is being considered for a performance at Temple Beth Shalom for Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) on April 14.

Mayfield plans to contact music publishing companies, and the piece is being professionally recorded. A music video is in the works, and she will release both on social media platforms.

On March 1, the final refrain of the five-minute piece will echo through Unity Spiritual Center.

”Will we speak?

Will we raise our voices in protest, exposing the darkness of those who seek you,

those who blame you, those who name you

undeserving of God’s love?

Where is our humanity?

Where is our humanity?”

Contact Cindy Hval at dchval@juno.com

 

An earlier version of this story misstated events surrounding Holocaust Remembrance Day. “For Anne, in the Attic” is being considered for inclusion in a performance at Temple Beth Shalom.