Several times a year, the hundreds of candles and the beautiful acoustics create unique concert evenings at the Portuguese Synagogue. Japanese-Dutch pianist and multimedia artist Tomoko Mukaiyama performs Maxim Shalygin’s 9 Preludes.

Maxim Shalygin is a Ukrainian composer who has lived in the Netherlands since 2010. His 9 Preludes are intimate, tranquil, and spiritual, full of emotional contrasts, introspection, and nostalgia. Shalygin sought a way to allow the listener to turn inward: “I deliberately used familiar historical genres so that the listener can effortlessly enter the gate of introspection.” The hundreds of candles in the Portuguese Synagogue are a perfect fit, as Shalygin also wrote this music by candlelight, to isolate himself, with minimal outside distractions. “Sometimes the music is so still that you start to hear your own breathing.” The Jewish Cultural Quarter is honored to once again present a candlelight concert with Tomoko Mukaiyama. She previously performed at the Portuguese Synagogue, in conjunction with the exhibition at the Jewish Museum featuring the work of her partner, photographer Philip Mechanicus (1936-2005).