SHORT TAKES : Hepburn Will Read Anne Frank

PHILADELPHIA — Composer Michael Tilson Thomas says he hears the sad but hopeful echoes of the past in Audrey Hepburn’s reading from the diary of Anne Frank.

Thomas, whose grandparents, Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, were founders and stars of the Yiddish Theater of America, said he used Frank’s writings as a framework for his newest composition, “Concerts for Life.”

The first of four concerts, to benefit UNICEF, will be Monday night at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music.

The program begins with Brahms’ “Academic Festival Overture” and ends with Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. In between is Thomas’ “From The Diary of Anne Frank,” narrated by Hepburn, who is UNICEF’s goodwill ambassador.