The Violin of the Shoah will be played by Alessandra Sonia Romano on Sunday 29 September, as a tribute to its former owner Eva Maria Levy and late instrument collector Carlo Alberto Carutti
A violin that endured the Holocaust will pe played at the Cremona Musica International Exhibitions and Festival on 29 September.
Nicknamed the Violin of the Shoah, the late-1800s violin by French luthier Collin Mézin belonged to violinist Eva Maria Levy, who was deported to the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp in 1943, along with her mother and brother.
Levy had brought her violin with her and was sent to join the camp orchestra, but died in the camp on 6 June 1944. The violin was recovered by her brother Enzo after he had been liberated from Monowitz concentration camp in 1944, after which he handed over the instrument to a restorer in Turin.
The violin, characterised by a Star of David on its back, was found in 2014 by Milanese entrepreneur and collector Carlo Alberto Carutti. Carutti assigned his entire collection of instruments to Cremona’s Civic Museum, including the Violin of the Shoah, which has been entrusted permanently to violinist Alessandra Sonia Romano since 2020.
Romano is a graduate of the Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello in Venice and the Royal College of Music in London. She has performed the Violin of the Shoah in concert halls, theatres and schools around the world, in an effort to bring the story of Eva Maria Levy to life.
She recalls one performance at the site of Birkenau: ’The platform where I performed was slightly elevated above the camp, and on the horizon we could see the sign we all know and the entrance where the trains used to arrive. At that moment I felt a knot and felt like crying, but I thought about what Eva must be feeling when she played there.’
‘It is impossible to play it without thinking about who it belonged to,’ Romano said.
Carutti died in 2022 aged 98. ’I really wanted to participate in Cremona Musica International Exhibitions and Festival to pay tribute to Carutti,’ said Romano. ’He would have been delighted to see me play at the fair. It is a tribute to his memory.’
Romano will appear in performance from 4:15pm to 5:15pm on Sunday 29 September in the events area of Hall 2 at Cremona Musica. She will be joined onstage with actor Elda Olivieri, who will read excerpts from the book Tales of the Violin of the Shoah, written by Carutti.
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