Renowned violinist Moshe Hammer played a stirring concert this weekend, but it wasn’t at Roy Thomson Hall or even one of Muskoka’s theatres.
Instead, Hammer played Gayle and Alf Kwinter’s cottage, on Little Lake Joseph in Seguin Township, as part of fundraising efforts for his Hammer Band project.
Under the banner “violence to violins,” the program takes classical music to at-risk youth, hoping to introduce the instrument as a positive outlet.
Gayle Kwinter said the experience of having Hammer play in her cottage, in front of a crowd of 70, was amazing.
“This was a famous violinist up-close-and-personal in an intimate setting. It was magical,” Kwinter said.
“He is absolutely wonderful.” Hammer was born in Budapest following the Second World War and moved to Israel as a child.
He soon established himself as an award-winning musician, moving to Canada and travelling the world.
He founded his charity after the summer of 2006, when Toronto was rocked by “the summer of the gun,” which saw a high rate of murders involving youth.
For her part, Kwinter was thrilled that the concert came together as planned after kicking around the idea for a number of years.
“He’s been asking us every year if we’d like to do it. And every year we had something, so the timing was never right,” she said. “But he’s persistent and kept asking us, so this year it was convenient for us to do it for him. We said we’d be happy to try and help out his cause.”
Hammer, joined by 18-year-old piano prodigy Coral Solomon, played in the Kwinter’s great room for about an hour. Originally, the plan was for him to perform outdoors on the stone patio.
While the weather on Saturday made that unlikely, it all worked out for the best.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better day,” Kwinter said with a bit of a laugh.
“It was cold, it was overcast, it was rainy, and the whole idea was that we wanted to have outside. But you know what? It worked out so much better.”
“The acoustics were wonderful because we have a very high ceiling – from the upstairs, you can look down into the great room. So people sat up there and people were sitting on the stairs.”
The assembled onlookers certainly appreciated the musical talent on display, with some members of the audience even moved to tears by the sweet sounds of Hammer’s violin and Solomon’s piano.
“They just loved it,” Kwinter said. “It was a very emotional experience for everybody.” Kwinter isn’t yet sure how much money was raised for Hammer’s program, but indications look good.
“I think people were quite willing to make a donation to his charity, which of course was what the whole thing was all about,” she said.
Hammer said that for every encore played, he wanted someone to purchase a $250 violin for his charity.
“He played quite a few encores, quite a few people must have bought violins,” Kwinter said. “It’s such a worthy cause, and of course the whole idea behind it was that we wanted to help him, so I hope we did.”
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