How do you place a value on a musical instrument? You can easily find a nice basic guitar for a couple hundred bucks. Or you can spend thousands to get one that can produce just the right tones … in the right hands. But real value comes with history and provenance. 

A 70-year-old Les Paul guitar could fetch as much as a decent Midwestern house. If it had a history with a major rock star, it could be worth millions. 

Go farther back to an 18th century Stradivarius violin, and it might be worth 10 times that amount. 

But what could make an instrument truly priceless? What combination of history and distinctiveness could transcend a dollar value to make a musical instrument mean much more than the money required to acquire it? 

The answer may lie in an upcoming exhibit entitled Violins & Hope: From the Holocaust to Symphony Hall at Mimi & Ian Rolland Art Center at the University of Saint Francis from March 11-23. 

Pictures worth thousands of words

The exhibition features images by Cleveland photographer Daniel Levin of the violins and workshop of Israeli luthier Amnon Weinstein, who founded the Violins of Hope project. The project is Weinstein’s life mission: To locate, restore, and preserve violins played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust.

Levin’s work shows the violins during transformation from disrepair to the symphony hall. His work showcases a remarkable ability to use light and shadow, highlighting the strength in the curve of the instrument’s body in contrast to the delicacy of the neck and strings tautly pulled over the bridge, all framed by the luthier’s dusty workshop and composed to show the steps of the restoration process.

Photography can represent music only in the abstract, and the static image of a violin cries out to be heard. Fortunately, there are a myriad of events around the exhibition, with plenty of opportunities to satisfy the aural wonder of the violin and celebrate the emotional connection with a musical instrument that has a history.

Opening reception

Events for Violins of Hope begin Sunday, March 9, with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Youth Symphony Orchestras performing Of Hope & Remembrance: Commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of the End of World War II at Auer Performance Hall on the campus of Purdue University Fort Wayne.

The photographic exhibit kicks off Tuesday, March 11, at 6 p.m. with a reception at the Weatherhead Gallery in Rolland Art Center. 

The Bennett String Ensemble will be performing Holocaust-era selections of Jewish music in a short concert. The instruments they play will be truly priceless, because they will be a set of the actual instruments from Weinstein’s workshop: Wagner Violin, Weichold Violin, Viola by Karl Zach, and Cello by Alfred Stelzner.

These particular instruments speak to the background of Weinstein’s mission. 

Many Jewish musicians who lost their jobs during the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s found their way to Palestine and formed an orchestra. 

When World War II was over, many of those musicians refused to play their German-made instruments for obvious reasons and talked about destroying them in anger. Amnon Weinstein’s father, Moshe Weinstein, recognized that music transcends the war and the evil that surrounded it and agreed to purchase the violins with the understanding that they would never be sold. 

They never were sold, but they became the genesis of Amnon’s life work decades later.

Events around the city

Events continue on Thursday, March 13, with Ariel String Quartet performing a free concert with the Fort Wayne Children’s Choir at 6:30 p.m. at Pearl Street Arts Center, 234 Pearl St. 

Back at Pearl Street Arts Center on Saturday, March 15, there will be a free screening of the documentary Saul and Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor Band. Saul and Ruby moved to America after WWII and settled into happy and fulfilling lives. In retirement, they formed a klezmer group called the Holocaust Survivor Band and found a purpose and meaning from their childhood memories of music in Poland.

On Monday, March 17, Levin will be at Weatherhead Gallery for a performance and artist talk. The Bennett Strings will be playing on the historic violins starting at 5:30 p.m., with Levin’s presentation slated for 6:20 p.m. 

On Tuesday, March 18, The History Center, 302 E. Berry St., presents a screening of Orchestra of Exiles, a documentary feature about the race against time to save Jewish musicians from the Nazi onslaught. The film features commentary by such notables as Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Pinchas Zukerman, and Joshua Bell.

Holocaust scholars will be on hand at Weatherhead Gallery on Wednesday, March 19, and Thursday, March 20, to guide visitors through the history that led up to the Violins of Hope project. Both events start at 10 a.m., with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Meadowlark Quartet supplying accompaniment Wednesday and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Wayne Street Strings on hand Thursday.

Also on Thursday, March 20, at 7:30 p.m., Rabbi Meir Bargeron from Congregation Achduth Vesholom joins Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, 1502 E. Wallen Road in a prayer service that focuses on the beauty of the Psalms, stories of Holocaust survivors, and the religious connections shared and revered by the Jewish people and Christians. Music will feature the St. Vincent Choir, Purdue Fort Wayne University Singers, and a string quartet performing on the Violins of Hope. Selections common to Jewish and Christian faith traditions will be featured.

The events conclude Friday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Achduth Vesholom, 5200 Old Mill Road, with a special Shabbat service led by Rabbi Meir Bargeron combining traditional prayers, reflections, and songs with music performed by a string quartet on the Violins of Hope. 

For more information and full list of events, go to violinsandhopefw.org.

Most of us will never hear a genuine Stradivarius in person. Only a very tiny percentage of the population will ever play one. 

The instruments in the Violins of Hope project can’t claim the tonal quality that sets a Strad apart from other instruments. Music is a time machine, and history means something. The fact that these violins still exist is a testament to the people who cared for them. 

If you have the means, you can buy a Stradivarius for yourself. But only circumstance, time, and care can make an instrument truly priceless.