My Heart Is a Violin

My Heart Is a Violin PDF

Author: Shony Alex Braun

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2003-02-19

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 0759696152

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This book traces the unique and remarkable life of Shony Alex Braun. As a boy of four, he becomes lost in the Transylvanian forest and encounters a group of gypsies who enchant him with their musical instruments. This launches his love and fascination for the violin. He eagerly learns to play the violin, and by age eleven he makes his debut on Radio Bucharest. His dreams of further study are cut short by Nazi oppression and the deportation of him at thirteen and his family to Auschwitz. The violin miraculously saves his life in the death camp of Dachau and then after liberation, the violin brings him back from the brink of death as he recovers from a gunshot wound, blood poisoning, tuberculosis and malnutrition. He meets a charming girl in the recovery hospital and begins a new life with her as his wife in the United States. Shony goes on to become a prolific composer, Hollywood performer, concert soloist and Pulitzer Prize nominee. His faith in God and his courage to survive will inspire you. Shonys loving concern for others with help you realize there is good in the world.

The Violin Conspiracy

The Violin Conspiracy PDF

Author: Brendan Slocumb

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2022-02-01

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 059331543X

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GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK! • Ray McMillian is a Black classical musician on the rise—undeterred by the pressure and prejudice of the classical music world—when a shocking theft sends him on a desperate quest to recover his great-great-grandfather’s heirloom violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world. “I loved The Violin Conspiracy for exactly the same reasons I loved The Queen’s Gambit: a surprising, beautifully rendered underdog hero I cared about deeply and a fascinating, cutthroat world I knew nothing about—in this case, classical music.” —Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant and Hour of the Witch Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. But Ray has a gift and a dream—he’s determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music. When he discovers that his beat-up, family fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach, and together, Ray and his violin take the world by storm. But on the eve of the renowned and cutthroat Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars left in its place. Without it, Ray feels like he's lost a piece of himself. As the competition approaches, Ray must not only reclaim his precious violin, but prove to himself—and the world—that no matter the outcome, there has always been a truly great musician within him.

Violin Dreams

Violin Dreams PDF

Author: Arnold Steinhardt

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780547086002

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"A rapturous, witty, and passionate memoir ... Violin Dreams is not only the story of a man becoming an artist, it’s a history of twentieth-century music.” -- John Guare, Tony Award-winning playwright Arnold Steinhardt, for more than forty years an international soloist and the first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet, brings warmth, wit, and fascinating insider details to the story of his lifelong obsession with the violin, that most seductive and stunningly beautiful instrument. His story is rich with vivid scenes: the terror inflicted by his early violin teachers, the sensual pleasure involved in the pursuit of the perfect violin, the charged atmosphere of high-level competitions. Steinhardt describes Bach’s Chaconne as the holy grail for the solo violin, and he illuminates, from the perspective of an ardent owner of a great Storioni violin, the history and mysteries of the renowned Italian violinmakers. Violin Dreams includes a remarkable CD recording of Steinhardt performing Bach’s Partita in D Minor as a young violinist forty years ago and playing the same piece especially for this book. A conversation between the author and Alan Alda on the differences between the two performances is included in the liner notes.

Boy with a Violin

Boy with a Violin PDF

Author: Yochanan Fein

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2022-05-17

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 0253060575

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On June 22, 1941, the German invasion of the Soviet Union began. In a matter of days, the war reached the suburbs of Kaunas, Lithuania, where a young Jewish violinist, Yochanan Fein, led a happy childhood. On June 22, 1941, that childhood ended. In Boy with a Violin, Fein recounts his early life under Nazi occupation—his survival in the Kaunas Ghetto, the separation from his parents, his narrow escapes from death at the hands of Nazi officers, the harrowing stories of those he knew who did not survive, and the abhorrent conditions he endured while in hiding. He tells the tale of his rescuer, Jonas Paulavičius, the Lithuanian carpenter who sought to save the Jewish spirit. Paulavičius rescued those he believed could rebuild in the wake of the Holocaust, hiding engineers and doctors in his underground Noah's Ark. Among the sixteen he saved stood one fourteen-year-old violinist. Following liberation, Fein describes the aftermath of the war as survivors returned to what was left of their homes and attempted to piece together the fragmented remains of their lives. He recounts the difficulties of returning to some semblance of normal life in the midst of a complex political climate, culminating in his daring escape from Soviet Lithuania. In one of the darkest eras of human history, there were those who proved that the goodness of the human spirit survives against all odds. Boy with a Violin pays tribute to those who risked everything to save a life, and whose altruism crossed the boundaries of race and religion. In this first English translation of Boy with a Violin, Fein continues to offer his testimony to the strength of the human spirit.

My Heart Is a Violin

My Heart Is a Violin PDF

Author: Shony Alex Braun

Publisher:

Published: 2003-02

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9780759696167

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Two 20-year-old cousins meet at a family reunion and share the joy, humor, and wonderment of their first exhilarating loves. Andrea is a New York City nursing student and Muffy is her effervescent Houston soul-mate. But Andrea finds Muffy caught in the vicious cycle of an eating disorder and defying parental controls. Andrea daringly helps Muffy confront the challenge of this seldom-seen ailment of the '60s. Following only a few years after her father's death, Andrea unexpectedly faces tragedy beyond belief. She faces the enormity of this challenge with an inspirational courage and faith, bringing Passionate Visions to a mystical, uplifting close!

Gone

Gone PDF

Author: Min Kym

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2017-04-25

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0451496078

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The spellbinding memoir of a violin virtuoso who loses the instrument that had defined her both on stage and off -- and who discovers, beyond the violin, the music of her own voice Her first violin was tiny, harsh, factory-made; her first piece was “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star.” But from the very beginning, Min Kym knew that music was the element in which she could swim and dive and soar. At seven years old, she was a prodigy, the youngest ever student at the famed Purcell School. At eleven, she won her first international prize; at eighteen, violinist great Ruggiero Ricci called her “the most talented violinist I’ve ever taught.” And at twenty-one, she found “the one,” the violin she would play as a soloist: a rare 1696 Stradivarius. Her career took off. She recorded the Brahms concerto and a world tour was planned. Then, in a London café, her violin was stolen. She felt as though she had lost her soulmate, and with it her sense of who she was. Overnight she became unable to play or function, stunned into silence. In this lucid and transfixing memoir, Kym reckons with the space left by her violin’s absence. She sees with new eyes her past as a child prodigy, with its isolation and crushing expectations; her combustible relationships with teachers and with a domineering boyfriend; and her navigation of two very different worlds, her traditional Korean family and her music. And in the stark yet clarifying light of her loss, she rediscovers her voice and herself.

A Violin for Elva

A Violin for Elva PDF

Author: Mary Lyn Ray

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 37

ISBN-13: 0152254838

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As a child, Elva asks for a violin so that she can make beautiful music but many years pass before her dream can come true.

The Butterfly and the Violin

The Butterfly and the Violin PDF

Author: Kristy Cambron

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Published: 2014-07-15

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1401690602

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Based on the real orchestra composed of prisoners at Auschwitz, The Butterfly and the Violin shows how beauty and hope can penetrate even the darkest corners. Present day: Manhattan art dealer Sera James watched her world crumble at the altar two years ago, and her heart is still fragile. Her desire for distraction reignites a passion for a mysterious portrait she first saw as a young girl—a painting of a young violinist with piercing blue eyes. In her search for the painting, Sera crosses paths with William Hanover—the grandson of a wealthy California real estate mogul—who may be the key to uncovering the hidden masterpiece. Together Sera and William slowly unravel the story behind the painting’s subject: Austrian violinist Adele Von Bron. 1942: A darling of the Austrian aristocracy, talented violinist, and daughter to a high-ranking member of the Third Reich, Adele Von Bron risks everything when she begins smuggling Jews out of Vienna. In a heartbeat, her life of prosperity and privilege dissolves into a world of starvation and barbed wire. As Sera untangles the secrets behind the painting, she finds beauty in the most unlikely places: the grim concentration camps of Auschwitz and the inner recesses of her own troubled heart. “Cambron expertly weaves together multiple plotlines, timelines, and perspectives to produce a poignant tale of the power of love and faith in difficult circumstances. Those interested in stories of survival and the Holocaust, such as Eli Wiesel’s Night, will want to read.” —Library Journal, starred review Stand-alone World War II historical fiction Full-length novel, approximately 115,000 words Includes discussion questions for book clubs Also available from Kristy Cambron: The Italian Ballerina, The Paris Dressmaker, The Lost Castle, The Ringmaster’s Wife, and The Illusionist’s Apprentice