And The Violins Stopped Playing 1988

Contents • • • • • Biography [ ] Alexander Ramati was born in, then part of, in a family. During he worked as a war journalist. He entered with the Allied forces in June 1944, and there he first met.

Later he interviewed him and wrote, published in 1978. In 1985 he directed of the book. In 1985 he wrote And the Violins Stopped Playing: A Story of the Gypsy Holocaust, which he also adapted to, in 1988. He died in, Switzerland. Bibliography [ ] • (1978) • And the Violins Stopped Playing: A Story of the Gypsy Holocaust (1986) Films [ ] • (1985) • (1988) References [ ].

This was supposed to be a piece about the fabulous cactus salad that my friend Juan Ramirez cooks up. But during the course of putting it all together the other evening, the topic turned to violins. Specifically, his violin. Composer Ramirez with Bellingham Festival of Music orchestra conductor Michael Palmer after a rehearsal for his “Suite Latina” at the 2016 festival. Has been in residence in Bellingham for the past three weeks where he has played in the first violin section with the orchestra.

Large selection of bows for violin. From student to professional level. The antique finish of the fine pernambuco hints at the playing characteristics of the.

Last year, his work, “Suite Latina”, was performed by the orchestra with the as soloists. The music evokes the sensuous dance rhythms of the composer’s native Mexico. The piece was originally written for string quartet and first performed at the in 2001. Juan adapted it for quartet and orchestra, especially for the Bellingham Festival where it was given its world premiere and a standing ovation from the audience. The 2016 festival audience gives a standing ovation at the world premiere of Ramirez’ “Suite Latina” for string quartet and orchestra.

But the celebrated composer is also known for culinary artistry as well, with his specialty being his native Mexican dishes, especially his mole, made from a family recipe. It’s a recipe that takes him three days to concoct and includes much grinding and pulverizing of ingredients using a blending machine from India in order to get just the right texture and consistency. Most Americans I know think of mole simply as sauce with Mexican chocolate as the key ingredient. Chocolate, specifically cocoa, is a main ingredient in Juan’s family recipe, but it is only one of 18 ingredients that go into his tasty, slightly spicy sauce. Adding his mole, which is more pasty than the runny stuff usually poured over standard Mexican fare, to homemade enchiladas or to chicken turns the ordinary into an extraordinary treat! Juan serves up his mole dish.

I watched Juan in my kitchen warming the mole on the stove and assembling the equally as delicious cactus salad made with nopales, or the big, flat paddle-like leafs from the prickly pear plant, that we began talking about violins. I asked if he ever had any trouble traveling with his violin on airlines, given the recent headlines about one professional violinist whose instrument the airline, United, insisted be checked as baggage instead of carried on board with her. Dead Or Alive 4 Para Pc more. “Not since the new laws,” Juan answered referring to the in 2015.

Then I asked where, when and how he found his violin. “That’s a good story,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. His violin was made in 1748 by of the Milano school of violin makers who were crafting their instruments in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. It’s uncertain exactly how it came to America, but it was the possession of a plantation owner in Macon, Georgia prior to the Civil War. He gave it to one of his favorite slaves who, upon the plantation owner’s death, “laid this instrument away as a keepsake,” according to a 1916 letter detailing the history.

The violin became the slave’s son, after his father died. The son had moved to the small town of where he worked as a train porter.

At the mention of Pratt, I stopped Juan and told him that I was familiar with the town, having grown up in Kansas. What a coincidence, I thought, for a musician who lives in Atlanta and plays with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to be standing in my kitchen mentioning Pratt, Kansas! But the story continues. The beautiful tiger grain of the back of Juan’s Testore violin is as rich-looking as the sound it produces. The son, unable to pay a debt owed to F.A. Erwin, the writer of the 1916 letter, turned over the violin as payment. Eventually the Testore ended up in a violin shop in Wichita, Kansas.