Ariel Quartet featured on 'Today Show'

The Today Show featured four familiar faces in an April 27 segment. The members of the Ariel Quartet, CCM’s string quartet-in-residence, performed music and spoke during an NBC News segment highlighting Violins of Hope, an organization dedicated to restoring violins that belonged to Holocaust victims and survivors. CCM faculty members Alexandra Kazovsky and Gershon Gerchikov, who serve as the Ariel Quartet's two violinists, performed on restored instruments during the segment.

For over two decades, Tel Aviv-based violin makers Amnon and Avshalom Weinstein have collected violins, violas and cellos that belonged to Jewish musicians during or before World War 2. The instruments, many of which are decorated with Stars of David, survived all odds to be lovingly restored by the father-son duo, who use their expertise to allow the violins to sing again.

In the segment, Kazovsky and Gerchikov showcase the restored sound of two of the instruments. "There is hope, there is a loss and there’s history, and there is beauty at the same time" says Kazovsky, after playing a violin whose owner survived two concentration camps. Watch the full segment below.

Violins of Hope organizes concerts by professional musicians who perform on the collection’s instruments. The Ariel Quartet gave a concert with the organization in the Chicago area on April 20, where the instruments will remain on display through October. But this isn’t the first time the quartet has participated in Violins of Hope’s mission. 

In 2018, the Violins of Hope collection made its way to Cincinnati. Nine of the restored instruments were used in a performance by local musicians, including Kazovsky and Gerchikov. In addition to performing with Violins of Hope, Kazovsky and Gerchikov, who both grew up and trained in Israel, are connected to the organization’s mission through Henry Meyer, a former CCM Professor of Violin.

The Ariel Quartet continues the legacy of the LaSalle Quartet, CCM’s first string quartet-in-residence. Henry Meyer, founding violinist of the LaSalle Quartet, was a Holocaust survivor himself. Considered a child-prodigy, Meyer survived four concentration camps, including Auschwitz. Though he passed away in 2006, Violins of Hope honored him and shared his story during the 2018 concert in Cincinnati.

"With every note from these strings we hear the music of survival," remarks NBC’s Jesse Kirsch during the Today Show segment. In an interview, Avshalom Weinstein remarks it is important to keep remembering the stories of individual Holocaust victims because "the amount of survivors is shrinking by the day." On Violins of Hope's website, the founders remark that instruments are "a way to say: remember me, remember us. Life is good, celebrate it for those who perished, for those who survived. For all people."

A shorter version of this segment also aired on the April 26 installment of NBC's Nightly News with Lester Holt.

Featured image at top: The Ariel Quartet performs with clarinetist Ilya Shterenberg (center) at a Violins of Hope showcase presented by the Jewish Community Centers of Chicago. Photo/NBC News