Friday, September 26 to Sunday, September 28, 2025, Cremona Exhibition Centre

The music and history of the Shoah violin on stage in Cremona. Romano: “an honor to bring the instrument back to the city”

Alessandra Sonia Romano and Elda Olivieri will perform on Sunday, September 29, with the violin that belonged to Eva Maria Levy, deported in ’43 to Birkenau

Cremona, Sept. 16, 2024 – Compared to what was communicated, to Eng. Carutti and to the city of Cremona, Alessandra Sonia Romano, who will be featured at the Cremona Musica International Exhibitions and Festival on Sunday, Sept. 29, did not promise that she would return the violin, should the city request it back, but she has always said she would be willing to return to play whenever the administration requests it: ” In 2016, Eng. Carutti chose me as the sole violinist. Then in 2020 I was permanently entrusted. He was very attached to the city of Cremona. Part of his family lived there, he had honorary citizenship, and he really cared about doing things for them. That is why, although I am doing concerts everywhere, it is always important for me to come back to this city. That’s why, should the administration ask me to come back here to play, the priority would go to Cremona. It is a tribute.” .

A violin survivor of the Holocaust. He will be the star of the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 29, the last day of the Cremona Musica International Exhibitions and Festival, scheduled for Sept. 27-29. The most important event dedicated to musical instruments in the world, and the only Italian and European fair of its kind. Playing it, from 4:15 to 5:15 p.m., will be violinist Alessandra Sonia Romano, to whom the instrument was permanently entrusted in 2020. And with her on stage will be actress Elda Olivieri, who will read excerpts from the book “The Violin of the Shoah Tells” written by Carutti.

The event will be held at the events area in Hall 2. A unique opportunity to listen, live, to the notes of the prestigious Violin of the Shoah, an instrument that belonged to Eva Maria Levy, who was deported to the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp in 1943, together with her mother and brother. Found only in 2014 thanks to Milanese entrepreneur and collector Carlo Alberto Carutti, who had a deep connection with the city of Cremona, it was handed over to the city’s Civic Museum, to which Carutti decided to assign his entire collection of instruments, including this object characterized by a Star of David on the bottom.

The violin, a Collin Mézin made in France in the late 1800s, was entrusted to the hands of Alessandra Sonia Romano in 2016, first with some restrictions, and then permanently in 2020, to have it played in concert halls, theater, and schools, and bring the story of Eva Maria to life in the world.

I really wanted to participate in Cremona Musica International Exhibitions and Festival to pay tribute to Carutti. He would have been delighted to see me play at the fair. It is a tribute to his memory” Romano recounts. The artist, who graduated in Venice from Conservatorio B. Marcello, approached Jewish music while studying at the “Royal College of Music” in London, where she delved into the subject with a Russian Israeli master perceiving this style as akin to her character. This eventually led her to specialize at Kibbutz Eilon in the Galilee.

In 2016, Eng. Carutti chose me as the sole violinist. He called me for a meeting in Milan, when I saw the violin I tried to make a good impression, I really wanted it to be entrusted to me. I played my workhorse, ‘Nigun’ by Ernest Bloch, and he accepted. Then in 2020 it was entrusted to me permanently. Now I don’t have to take him back to the museum on concert breaks. “. To Carutti, and to Cremona, he made a promise, however: should the city request it back, he would not hesitate to return it. Romano has taken the music of the Shoah Violin around the world. Among the many events were the meeting between the Cardinal of Milan Angelo Scola and Chief Rabbi Alfonso Arbib at the Synagogue in Milan, or in Rome at the Senate of the Republic in the Sala dell’Istituto di Santa Maria in Aquiro. But the event that moved her most was the “In Train for Memory” trip, when she took the instrument back to where Eva was deported.

Playing this instrument is a strong emotion, different from the usual,” Romano recalls. ” For me, it is impossible to play it without thinking about who it belonged to. When I touch its strings I feel a mixture of sadness, sweetness and also anger at what happened. The height of emotion I reached when I played it in Birkenau, a trip organized by the Cremona CGIL with some students. 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“.

But not only live performances. In Cremona these days it will be possible to find more than 400 exhibitors from 35 countries, including Europe, the USA, Canada, Asia and Australia. Including a rich schedule of events, award ceremonies, cultural meetings and presentations of important new developments in music.

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