Eva Pusztai-Fahidi was  a girl of 18 when she was taken to Auschwitz, where her parents, sister and 49 members of her extended family were murdered in the Nazi extermination machine.

For 60 years after her liberation, Eva never spoke of her horrific experiences.

Now, in her 90s, she has opened a show in dance and words for a Berlin audience.

Watch video here.

Read more here.

An official from the BSO has written to Adele Ohki apologising for her eviction from Symphony Hall while pointing out that the orchestra has ‘a long-standing rule’ not to allow children under five into concerts, or rehearsals.

Kim Noltemy, chief operating an communications office, adds: ‘I oversee the various audience policies at the BSO and yesterday I brought your concerns to the attention of the senior management, including Mark Volpe.

‘We will study the issue further and survey the current audience on the subject. This will be a process and I cannot promise you that there will be a change, but we will review the matter anew.’

That seems fair enough.

Except ‘the long-standing policy’ is inaccurate. A former BSO assistant concertmaster has commented on Slipped Disc that she remembered infants being brought to rehearsals in the 1970s and 1980s. Cecylia Arzewski added: ‘I am very sad to hear how you have been treated!’

Jonathon Heyward, 23, winner of the Besançon conductors competition, has signed with Paris-based boutique agency, CLB

Jonathon is currently based in London, where he is studying with Sian Edwards.

The sometime Sony Classical artist will top the bill at a profile-raising concert for the Labour Party leader.

She’s being touted as the big draw in #JC4PM (Jeremy Corbyn for Prime Minister) at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh on March 9, and elsewhere on tour.

From today’s Wall Street Journal:

The hand-held device, which sells for $99, attaches to a tuning peg on a stringed instrument. After the user plucks the string, Roadie analyzes the sound and automatically adjusts the tension to get the string tuned properly. An app stores profiles for different instruments and custom tunings and keeps track of the elasticity of the strings, telling the musician when new ones are needed.

Too good to be good? Read more here.

The weekend’s casualties have recovered fast.

Gennady Rozhdestvensky, whose fall on his way to conduct the Dresden Philharmonic caused the concert to be cancelled, is up and about today. His agent tells Slipped Disc: ‘he is okay to travel to Stockholm today and hopes to fly to Chicago next week.’

Meanwhile, Anna Netrebko has posted a short video message on Instagram to say her leg is unstrapped and she’s back in rehearsal. ‘My health is now much better and my foot is almost fine,’ she reports.

Monday morning, back to work.

Julian Trevelyan, who came top at this year’s Long-Thibaud-Crespin competition, is among the finalists announced today for BBC Young Musician of the Year.

The 2016 category finalists are:

Finals on May 16 at the Barbican.

Tonight’s concert of the Dresden Philharmonic was cancelled at half an hour’s notice, with all the musicians backstage and the audience taking its seats.

It appears that the conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky fell and suffered an injury on the snowy pavements on his way to the hall. No replacement was on standby.

Players, who have informed us of the accident, are particularly distressed, since it occurred at the end of a week of exceptional music making with the venerable Russian conductor.

We wish Gennady a speedy recovery

HEALTH UPDATE here.

‘There is quality in Mr. Bologna’s voice,’ wrote Bernard Holland in the New York Times when Philip Bologna was among 11 winners of the Metropolitan Opera National Council’s 1984 Auditions.

Philip was getting parts around the country at the time, but not enough to feed a family. It was reported that ‘he supports his wife and two children by working in a General Motors parts warehouse.’

These days, he drives a school bus in Rochester Minnesota.

He loves his work.

Read here.

It would be interesting to hear from Philip how opera let him go.

The death has been announced of Dmitry Miller, principal cellist at the Bolshoi from 1982 to 2012. He was 73

Dmitry enjoyed an extensive solo career in Russia and was a prominent professor at the Moscow Conservatoire. He made numerous recordings.

A composer of more than 500 scores, widely performed in Seattle and recognised far beyond, Bern Herbolsheimer has died of cancer, at 67.

His chamber opera The Quartet was premiered at at Carnegie Hall. His anthem Gold and Silver featured in Steven Soderbergh’s HBO series The Knick.

Tribute here.

Distressing news from Concerto Köln.

Flute player Cordula Breuer was robbed yesterday on a train from Cologne to Amsterdam (ICE 128), probably at Oberhausen station.

She lost a leather bag with three historic flutes, her purse, money, cards and phone (Samsung S4).

The flutes are:
– Traversflöte, Ebenholz (4teilig, 1 Klappe)
– Sopran-Blockflöte, Buchsbaum gebeizt (2teilig)
– Piccolo-Blockflöte, Buchsbaum natur (3teilig)

If you can help or have any information, please contact info@concerto-koeln.de