Artists: Daniel Hope violin, Philip Dukes viola, Josephine Knight cello

Actor: Ulrich Matthes (in German-speaking countries)

This is a story about the power of music. Music composed by a range of Czech composers, such as Erwin Schulhoff, Hans Krasa and Gideon Klein, each of whom was imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps. It is also a look at the way in which the human mind and its artistic credo react when faced with intolerable circumstances. Can one ever really divorce the context in which such music is composed? Probably not, but then, that is not the issue at stake. Two of these composers were celebrated on the international scene, and the third was about to be discovered as a major talent. What they have written is powerful, unsentimental and uncompromising. It’s as if every single note counted – these men were literally writing for their lives...

Daniel Hope and his acclaimed colleagues present an evening of extraordinary music, showing us a cross-section of music by composers murdered by the Nazis. But whose music survived. Together with an actor, poetry and texts from Theresienstadt are blended into this powerful music, for an unforgettable evening.

Hope also performed "Forbidden Music" at the Dachau Concentration Camp in May 2005, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Camp. It was a moving and poignant event, with 500 former inmates attending for the first time since 1945.

The evening can be performed with or without an actor.