Unsung The Wartime Violin

Award-winning artists Fenella Humphreys, Nicola Eimer, and Leah Broad bring you the Second World War through the lives of women musicians who entertained the troops, kept hope alive on the Home Front, and fought for their country in secret.

…a revelatory angle on a colossal historical event, transforming what we think we know about women’s experience of war
— Whiting Nonfiction Grant Jury

Humphreys is technically and musically superb – The Strad Magazine

Nicola Eimer is an outstanding artist – The Strad Magazine

Based on the forthcoming book by Dr Leah Broad, ‘UNSUNG: Women and Music in World War II’ (March 2027), this concert introduces Avril Coleridge Taylor, whose wartime compositions have remained unheard until now. We’ll meet violinist Alma Rosé, who went from a celebrity violinist to the leader of the women’s orchestra in Auschwitz — and ballerina Tatiana Vecheslova, who survived performing on the Eastern Front and in Leningrad under siege. Pianists Myra Hess and Elly Ney reveal how Beethoven was used as a wartime symbol in both Britain and Germany. Singer and dancer Josephine Baker was not only one of the most celebrated musicians in the world, but also worked as an intelligence agent for the French and British. And the International Sweethearts of Rhythm were the first racially integrated women’s jazz band in the United States, breaking down racial barriers while proving that women, too, could be extraordinary jazz musicians.

Full programme coming soon.