Violins of Hope: A Profound Musical Journey

I wish that everyone I know in New Jersey and in New York City could have attended the lecture and performance that my wife Marcia and I were present for this past Sunday, January 12,2025 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. I realize that “everyone I know”is a hyperbolic yet accurate indication of how profoundly Marcia and I were moved by this event.

Five years in the planning, the afternoon was conceived and brought to fruition by Helen Cha-Pyo (above left), Artistic Director at WhartonARTS and Principal Conductor of the New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJYS). As founding NJYS Music Director and Conductor, I could not be happier nor prouder of this organization since Helen Cha-Pyo––now in her 7^th season––took over the reins. Under her leadership the NJYS performs absolutely superbly. One can hardly believe this a symphony orchestra comprised of teenage musicians. They play that well.

Violins of Hope is an educational entity built around a private collection of stringed instruments––mostly violins––housed in Tel Aviv, Israel. Many of these belonged to and were played by Jews before and during World War II, thereby saving their lives. These instruments serve to memorialize those concentration camp prisoners through concerts, lectures, exhibitions and other projects, and all have a common denominator as symbols of hope.

The late Israeli violinmaker Amnon Weinstein (above center) founded this educational project. He was the driving force behind acquiring and refurbishing this collection of instruments. His son Avshalom ‘Avshi’ Weinstein––also trained as a luthier by his father––worked with Amnon and now devotes his life to the Violins of Hope mission. Avshi travels the world with a subset of the collection for exhibition and concert-lecture collaborations with musical ensembles and individual artists. He was present on Sunday, and spoke before the concert as some of the instruments were displayed and individuals connected to those instruments related their stories.

I have my own personal connection with this subject. My teacher in music school, Czech violinist Paul Kling (above right with me), 1929-2005, was a Holocaust survivor. A child prodigy, he made his debut as a soloist with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra when he was 7. In 1943, as a teenager, he was sent to the Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp where he played in the orchestra. After the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion, Terezin began transferring inmates to Auschwitz. The transport carrying Paul arrived there on September 28, 1944. Somehow, he managed to survive until the 60^th Army of the First Ukrainian Front liberated the camp on January 27, 1945. He ultimately made his way to the United States where I studied with him. A wonderful teacher, he was also––in part due to the experiences he endured––a very wise, compassionate and understanding human being. Just before I started music school in 1966, my mother had died of cancer, and I had … issues. Paul perceived these, took me under his wing, and made sure I didn’t self-destruct, for which I am forever grateful to him.

The emotional impact of the concert that followed the lecture on Sunday was intense, given my relationship with Paul. The program included Movement I of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor––a favorite of Paul’s––which I listened to him perform on a number of occasions. Between each musical selection there were short video clips––projected on large screens––of interviews with Holocaust musician survivors, telling their own stories. These clips were from the USC Shoah (Hebrew for Holocaust) Foundation’s archive. Powerful. But the tears began to flow when four young NJYS violinists played the main theme from Three Pieces by composer John Williams from the feature film Schindler’s List––on four instruments from the Violins of Hope Collection––accompanied by the rest of the orchestra.Then, members of the New Jersey Youth Symphony, New Jersey Youth Chorus, and the Harmonium Choral Society jointly performed Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms under Helen Cha-Pyo’s excellent direction––with the psalm texts projected on the large screens as they were being sung. Overwhelming. The entire afternoon was overwhelming.

As Helen Cha-Pyo said in her written message in the program booklet: “This concert is a bridge between memory and renewal, darkness and light. It is a collective plea to ‘never give up on peace,’ reminding us of the transformative power of music to heal, connect, and inspire. Through the music we share today, may we honor the past, embrace the present, and dream of a future where unity and peace prevail. Let us listen, let us remember, and let us believe.” https://www.violins-of-hope.com/