The Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte-Carlo will perform a concert in Monaco featuring instruments of Jewish Holocaust victims.
Several violins belonging to Jews murdered by the Nazis will be played at the concert, called “The Violins of Hope,” on Saturday, May 4 at the Grimaldi Forum, and the stories of their owners will be told, according to a report in the Nice Matin French daily.
The concert was initiated by Smadar Eisenberg, president of Friends of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte-Carlo. The instruments were obtained from the atelier of Amnon Weinstein, an Israeli violin maker who for years has been collecting and restoring musical instruments belonging to Holocaust victims.
Biographies of other musicians who lived through the Holocaust also will be read at the concert, the daily reported, including that of Alma Rose, a conductor of the Auschwitz women’s orchestra and niece to the composer Gustav Mahler.
Homage will be paid to Hans Krasa and Gideon Klein, Jewish musicians who continued to compose until their deaths in the Nazis’ gas chambers.
Proceeds from ticket sales will go to the Hebrew University’s neurology research center. — jta