Virtually everyone has listened to a popular song with its lyrics changed for comedic or dramatic effect. But a perhaps little-known fact of the Holocaust is that this type of parody was also a common practice in some of the most hellish places on Earth: concentration camps.

Musician and music scholar Alexandra Birch will discuss the resistance demonstrated by one of the 20th century’s most renowned composers, Dmitri Shostakovich, in her presentation at the Music as Resistance to Genocide academic symposium.

Musicologist Janie Cole will discuss how “freedom songs” provided an oppressed community with political expression, resistance, therapy, identity, memory and resilience to confront potential violence and death.

​At the academic symposium, scholars will discuss how music was used as resistance in a number of conflicts around the world. Tina Frühauf will instead focus on the very definition of “resistance” itself.

One of Poland's most beloved films is a unique example of music uniting both Jews and gentiles in the immediate post-war period that would soon become very difficult to find anywhere else.

When I commenced my PhD journey three years ago at Edge Hill University in northern England, I had little idea of where the journey would take me, both literally and figuratively.

Sandya Maulana’s presentation at the symposium is a chance to discuss an issue from his native Indonesia that has yet to be discussed even in Indonesia itself.

The conference included a night of films, an academic symposium and a concert, all exploring music as it has been used as a form of resistance to genocides throughout history.

Musicologist Matt Lawson came to “Singing in the Lion’s Mouth: Music as Resistance to Genocide” conference hoping for feedback on one of his newest research ideas, and he wasn’t disappointed.