A young Jewish violinist from the Amazon will play the 5th movement of a concerto he penned during lockdown as part of an evening of music commemorating those murdered by the Nazis.
Leon Keuffer will join Anita Lasker-Wallfisch – the German cellist and Holocaust survivor – for the concert this Saturday.
Originally from Brazil, Mr Keuffer moved to Britain with his mother aged 16 to study at the prestigious Chethams School of Music in Manchester.
He went on to study at the Royal College of Music in London before taking up a master’s course in Salzburg, Austria. The concert will take place in Salzburg’s Kongresshaus.
Mr Keuffer, now 25, will be playing a violin concerto he wrote during lockdown for the first time publicly. He told the JC its fifth movement was inspired by the melody of the prayer Yehid Nefesh, which he used to sing while attending Jackson’s Row Synagogue in Manchester.
“I feel very honoured to have been asked to play my own music in such a meaningful event,” he said. “But I am also very happy with the fact that the cultured Austrians are showing solidarity with the Jews, even though antisemitism still exists here.”
Mr Keuffer’s mother, Cecelia, had previously struggled to pay for Chetham’s foreign student fees, but said at the time there was no comparative school in Brazil. She is now thankful that he was able to mould his career in the UK.
At the concert, Ms Lasker-Wallfisch will recount her personal experience at the hands of the Nazis, which saw her survive Auschwitz only because the women’s orchestra at the camp needed a cellist.
As well as some classical works, the concert will feature music by John Williams written for the soundtrack to Shindler’s List, as well as Shalom Aleichem.
