A musical journey comes full circle: Fredrick Kaufman's Kaddish returns to FIU

Three generations of musicians come together for a deeply personal performance celebrating the FIU Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center’s 30th anniversary.

Some pieces of music stay with us long after the final note. For cellist Jason Calloway, Fredrick Kaufman's Kaddish is one of them.

Calloway first performed the composition as a teenager with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra. Now, he returns to the work as the featured soloist with the FIU Symphony Orchestra, bringing a lifetime of musical experience and a deeper connection to his Jewish heritage.

The October 24 performance closes the 2026 FIU Music Festival, celebrating three decades of the Herbert and Nicole Wertheim School of Music & Performing Arts while bringing together its founding director, an internationally acclaimed cellist and a new generation of musicians.

For Fredrick Kaufman, a composer who for years directed the music school and inaugurated the music festival three decades ago, the reunion is especially meaningful.

A composition born from loss

In 1986, Kaufman lost both of his parents within six months of each other. As he observed the traditional Jewish mourning period, he turned to the language he knew best: music. The result was Kaddish, a deeply personal composition inspired by the Jewish prayer associated with mourning.

"I have written over 150 compositions and can unequivocally say that my Kaddish is the most personal work I have ever written," Kaufman said, adding that the piece still brings tears to his eyes whenever it is performed.

The work soon found an audience, with performances in France, New York and Israel, including a performance at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. 

Kaddish continues to resonate with audiences.

"Often people have shared their experiences with me after hearing my Kaddish performed," Kaufman said.

What began as one composer's deeply personal expression of grief has become a work through which others find meaning in their own experiences.

A different musician, a deeper connection

For Calloway, returning to Kaddish is more than revisiting a familiar composition.

He was just 15 when he first encountered the work, in 1994, and performed it with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra under conductor Joseph Primavera. It was unlike anything he had played before.

"Fred's piece felt to me like the most confusing and difficult work I'd ever heard!" Calloway recalled.

He remembers being captivated by the soloist, cellist Mark Drobinsky, and struggling to navigate the unfamiliar musical language of a living composer.

"I recall being transfixed by the soloist ... for I'd never heard playing like that up close," he said.

Today, after an international career as a soloist and chamber musician, Calloway returns to Kaddish with an entirely different perspective, not only concerning the work, but also his relationship with his Jewish identity.

"That particular prayer, the Kaddish, is one that doesn't often resonate with a person until we understand loss," Calloway explained.

His deepening connection to Jewish tradition, along with his own experiences of loss, has transformed the way he understands the music. What once seemed abstract to him as a teenager now carries profound personal meaning. As he prepares to perform the work as a soloist for the first time, Calloway sees the years between performances not as a distance to overcome, but as an opportunity to approach the music with fresh understanding.

"For me it's a new work in every way, and given where I am in my own journey now, I can bring more of myself to the piece as a result."

Kaufman finds particular satisfaction in Calloway's continued commitment to the piece.

"I find it quite wonderful that Jason, who has performed so many works worldwide, is still excited about performing the work," he said.

Calloway, now a member of the Amernet String Quartet, FIU's official ensemble-in-residence, has spent years sharing his musical experience with students. Among them is graduate cellist Max Ludwig, who will join him onstage as a member of the FIU Symphony Orchestra.

The next generation

For Ludwig, a first-semester master's student in cello performance and graduate assistant for the orchestra, the opportunity to study with Calloway was one of the reasons he chose FIU.

"I wanted someone that would really shape me and improve my playing," Ludwig said. "And that's what he's doing right now."

But their relationship extends beyond technique and repertoire. Ludwig describes Calloway as a musician whose extraordinary range of experience informs every lesson, often opening the door to conversations about life, personal growth and the decisions that shape a career.

"Sometimes lessons can be somewhat life coachings and therapy sessions," Ludwig said, describing something he deeply values in a teacher.

Now, he has the opportunity to share the stage with that same mentor in a performance that carries decades of personal and musical history.

For Ludwig, the meaning of Kaddish extends beyond any single interpretation.

"Every audience member is their own being, with their own story, and their own history and their own grief and joy," he said.

He believes powerful music allows each listener to find something personal within it, regardless of background or faith. And as he prepares to perform alongside Calloway, Ludwig hopes the experience will be just as meaningful for his teacher.

"We're all doing one thing together, working as sort of one mind, one heart, one soul," he said. "It's gonna be a very singular experience that we all get to create and share and experience together."

30 years and a full-circle moment

The significance of this performance extends beyond the concert hall.

When Kaufman arrived at FIU, he envisioned a music program where students could learn directly from extraordinary professional musicians. He helped bring distinguished artists to FIU, establish an international music festival and build the foundation for what would become the Herbert and Nicole Wertheim School of Music & Performing Arts.

"I have spent many years as a professor, composer and as an administrator in higher education, but none was more satisfying than my years at Florida International University," Kaufman recalled.

The FIU Music Festival became part of that vision, connecting students and Miami audiences with internationally respected performers. Kaddish was performed during the festival's inaugural year, with cellist Mark Drobinsky as soloist. Now, the work returns to close the anniversary festival, performed by musicians representing the very legacy Kaufman helped create.

For Ludwig, who is just beginning his graduate studies, the opportunity to meet Kaufman and perform his music adds another dimension to the experience.

"I'm meeting part of the history of the school I'm at," he said. "It's really a full circle moment, and I'm proud to be here at this time."

For Kaufman, watching his composition return to the festival he established is a source of enormous personal and professional satisfaction.

And for Calloway, the performance offers something perhaps even more personal: an opportunity to return to a piece of music that has accompanied him through different chapters of his life, this time surrounded by colleagues and students who will carry its legacy forward.

Some music stays with us. Other music grows with us.

Kaddish has done both.

The FIU Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Javier José Mendoza, presents Fredrick Kaufman's Kaddish, featuring cellist Jason Calloway, on Saturday, Oct. 24, as the closing concert of the 2026 FIU Music Festival at the Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center.