The Cello Still Sings, Janet Horvath
The Cello Still Sings, Janet Horvath
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

The Cello Still Sings
A Generational Story of the Holocaust and of the Transformative Power of Music

Author: Janet Horvath

Narrator: Samantha Desz

Unabridged: 13 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/19/2024

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

A sweeping history of three generations darkened by the long shadow of the Holocaust, The Cello Still Sings is a vivid, moving, and true story of personal discovery. As a child Janet is haunted by the eerie hush surrounding her parents' experiences. George and Katherine, two professional musicians and Holocaust survivors, bury the memories of who and what they were before, silencing the past in order to live.

Janet finally unravels her Holocaust heritage when she stumbles upon a clue. After the war, George performed morale-boosting programs throughout Bavaria in a twenty-member orchestra of concentration camp survivors. Although Janet also becomes a cellist, her father never discloses that two of the programs, in 1948, were led by the legendary American maestro, Leonard Bernstein.

Janet's father was more fortunate than others. When he was rounded up for hard labor, narrowly missing deportation to Auschwitz, a music-loving Nazi guard gave him gloves to protect his cello-playing hands. Janet's memoir of the Holocaust is deeply personal and illuminating. Through humor and colorful story-telling, she weaves her parents' life into her own and captures the intensity of their life experiences. The lingering scars are healed through the sustenance and power of music, and their music-making unites people from generation to generation.

About Janet Horvath

Janet Horvath is a lifelong performing classical musician, soloist, speaker, educator, and author. The Minnesota Orchestra's associate principal cello from 1980 to 2012, she has appeared as soloist with orchestra, and in recital and chamber music throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. She has appeared on (inter)national radio and television, including the BBC, CBC, and NPR and on podcasts. A contributing writer for the online classical music e-magazine Interlude.HK, she has penned over 350 feature articles about music and musicians. Recent essays have appeared in national publications, including the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and international music publications Musical America, Chamber Music America, Strings Magazine, the Brass Herald, and Strad Magazine. The author of the award-winning book Playing (Less) Hurt-an Injury Prevention Guide for Musicians, she has worked with instrumentalists to establish a holistic approach to music making. A pioneer and authority in the area of the medical problems of performing artists, and a passionate arts advocate, Janet is well-known among both amateur and professional musicians, teachers and students, and health care providers. Her masterclasses and seminars have been well received by orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Utah Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and Boston Symphony Orchestra, and at colleges, conservatories, and conferences from coast to coast. Through her writing and musical performances, Janet creates restorative conversations, offers spiritual sustenance, and explores music's life-bringing and healing power. In the age of fast-moving news, despite our best efforts, uncertainty and divisiveness prevail. Janet hopes to counteract the consequences of intolerance and endeavors to stimulate dialogue about inequality and the ramifications of racism. Ms. Horvath earned her master's degree in music performance from Indiana University and completed her MFA in creative writing at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Heather on February 15, 2023

Janet's book is an inspiring and engrossing read. It is extremely hard to put down once you have started it. Her father, a superb cellist, as is Janet, gave her a clue to his Holocaust story very late in his life. This clue prompted Janet's quest to unravel a timeline of her parents' Holocaust exper......more

Goodreads review by Kenneth on March 03, 2023

This story echoes the expressions of many who experience war, including a friend and mentor enslaved during the Hungarian Revolution, and suffer post-war: “the price of surviving is NOT to feel.” Janet documents the horrors of the Holocaust in detail--a tale none of us can afford to forget. But the......more

Goodreads review by Stephen on February 18, 2023

This book is a page-turner. Not only is it captivating and thoroughly engrossing but it is cleverly written and has its own "musical" feel. Ms. Horvath has captured with integrity and truth one of the darkest moments in human history. But the story does not stop there; it moves onward to light and h......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on May 13, 2024

I just finished reading the book “The Cello Still Sings”. I have read and pondered the book over the past 6 months in my trips to be with family in Minneapolis. Reading it over time has allowed me to absorb its contents on multiple levels. This book hits my very core. Ms Horvath discusses the atroci......more

Goodreads review by Chip on February 18, 2023

I loved this book. Janet Horvath is a great writer. She turns what could be just historical facts into captivating stories. I was especially moved by the story of her father playing cello in the "Ex-Concentration Camp Orchestra" in Landsberg, Germany in 1948, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. And Jane......more