| Meeting: 9th March, 2022 |
March
The Fiddle - Sobering Reflections
(By Chris Norwell)
The meeting started with a minute's reflection on the terrible situation in Ukraine.
Speaker, Natalie Cumming kept members totally gripped by the astonishing, and at times harrowing, story behind 'The Fiddle'.
Natalie recounted her family's suffering as they fled from the Bolsheviks, using their musical talent with a violin in exchange for food and shelter.
Moving through the years the violin enabled Natalie Cumming’s aunt to survive imprisonment in various concentration camps by performing, once again, in exchange for food which saved her life.
A sombre tale, showing how life can change so quickly
Afterwards, members queued eagerly to buy a signed copy of Natalie's book.
Natalie appeared on the BBC ‘The Repair Shop’ aired in 2018, where her precious fiddle was restored to its former glory! The instrument was then donated in perpetuity to the Yehudi Menuhin School.
The link below gives more details, and also includes a video of one of the students playing some solo Bach on the instrument:
www.menuhinschool.co.uk/news/cummings-violin
The raffle prize, a box of floral spring delights, was donated by Helen Thomson and won by Ann Morgan.
The competition, a sentence made from the word "Fiddle" was won by Gwenfyl Williams.
The evening was rounded off with a very tasty supper prepared by Anne Saunders and Chris Norwell.