Columbia Star

1963        Celebrating 60 Years      2023

Local musicians to play violins that survived the Holocaust



Violins of Hope will travel from Israel to perform with Columbia’s Varna International.

Violins of Hope will travel from Israel to perform with Columbia’s Varna International.

Performing together for the first time, two international musical performance companies will combine to create statewide events. Plans are underway in South Carolina to host Violins of Hope, traveling from Israel to perform with Columbia’s Varna International, April 18 to May 19, 2022.

Violins of Hope features 60 violins played by Jewish musicians who perished in the death camps during the Holocaust. Now restored, the violins— played by local musicians—will remind audiences, Never Again. “The violins represent the victory of the human spirit over evil and hatred,” Amnon Weinstein Founder, Violins of Hope.

Varna International’s “Songs of Life” presents the little-known story of Bulgarians who rescued their 49,000 Jewish citizens from Nazis in 1943. The astounding story of Europe’s biggest World War II rescue will include soloists from the renowned Philp Kutev National Folklore Ensemble of Bulgaria. They will join 250 local performers to present the miraculous story in some of South Carolina’s largest venues. “The union of words and music is the most powerful, emphatic way to deliver a message,” notes Sharon and Kalin Tchonev, Founders, Varna International.

Between them, both musical productions have appeared hundreds of times in European capitals, Israel, and the United States performing in venues including The Kennedy Center, Boston’s Wang Theater, and Lincoln Center. They will perform together in these once-in-a-lifetime events lifting up South Carolina’s motto, “While I breathe, I hope”

Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Spartanburg, Abbeville, Greenwood, and Sumter are now scheduling and planning concerts, educational, and cultural events. South Carolina’s musicians will awaken the violins in big concerts performed by orchestras and in smaller settings by high school orchestras. Music will float across the Palmetto state in synagogues, churches, opera houses, libraries, schools, and universities. Six visiting authors of Holocaust-era stories, museum exhibits of the 80-year-old violins, and an art exhibit called “The Auschwitz Album Revisited” are also part of the extensive programming available statewide for the four-week tour.

Each founders’ musical passions have emerged from the powerful, inspiring stories of their Israeli and Bulgarian families. The goal of the four-week tour is to uplift, through the arts, the ideals of courage, inspiration, and the Never Again message. The cultural and educational events will serve as inspiring encores to Passover April 15-23, Easter April 17, and honor Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 28.

Educational, religious, and civic groups are urged to choose and schedule events now which take place between April 18-May 19, 2022. Tickets are on sale for Violins of Hope and Varna International’s “Songs of Life” on April 24 at Myrtle Beach High School, North Charleston Performing Arts Center on April 28, and Koger Center on May 8.

For video and more information, visit www.facebook.com/ViolinsofHopeSC, YouTube/ils5JEjUsgI, or www.violinsofhopesc.org.

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