Auschwitz violinist in new stage drama
mainHenry Meyer, second violin of the La Salle Quartet and a survivor of Auschwitz, is the subject of a new play to be staged in Cincinnati, where he spent the second half of his life.
I met Henry at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in the late 1990s and we became firm friends. He was charming, knowledgeable and receptive to most things, except contestants’ wrong notes – which drove him vertically up the wall with rage.
Here’s a page with his Holocaust history.
And here’s the news from Cincinnati. Thanks to Janelle Gelfand for the heads up.
The Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative is presenting a new play by Kalman Kivkovich and directed by Ed Cohen on the life of Henry Meyer, the late Holocaust survivor, violinist and founding member of the LaSalle Quartet, on April 26 at the Aronoff Center. Meyer’s harrowing escape from the Nazis and his survival of four Nazi death camps after losing his entire family is an amazing true story of courage. He went on to forge an international career with the LaSalle Quartet and as a distinguished professor of violin at CCM. Click here to read more.
Wow! What an amazing person, with an equally amazing life story. Henry Meyer’s life, and what we can all learn from his courage and his devotion to art, should be perfect material for a play. I am also pleased to see that he’s remembered so well in his adopted home of Cincinnati. I hope that this play is very successful; Henry Meyer deserves nothing less.