Dear friends, 

I would like to share with you today a very short and special Encore recording from my last month concert.   

This short piece was composed by Alexander Wolkovsky,  an 11-years old boy in the Vilna Ghetto winning a Judenrat competition in April 1943 encouraging cultural endeavours in the ghetto. The song describes the events at Ponary as a mother singing a lullaby to her son. She tells him of the tragedy of Vilna but expresses her hope that from the darkness light will break forth. 

Most people have never heard of Alexander Wolkovsky.  Lovers of classical music know him by his Hebrew name, Alexander Tamir.

The change of identity included the deliberate erasing of the memory. Tamir, who survived the holocaust, died one month ago on the 15th of August 2019 in Israel.

Tamir did not want to remember those horrific days in the Vilna Ghetto. What he wanted to do was to play classical music on the piano and to teach young people how to appreciate music.