Shony Alex Braun

Sandor (Shony) Alex Braun Born Cristuru-Secuiesc, Romania, 1930 Shony was born to religious Jewish parents in a small Transylvanian city. He began to learn the violin at age 5. His town was occupied by Hungary in 1940 and by Germany in 1944. In May 1944, he was deported to the Auschwitz camp in Poland. He was transferred to the Natzweiler camp system in France and then to Dachau, where he was liberated by U.S. troops in April 1945. In 1950, he emigrated to the U.S., and became a composer and a professional violinist.

Gypsy Festival #5001 LP Impromptu Records ST-1007/1008 Medley a) Gari Gari b) Kalinka The whistling Gypsy Chanson bohémienne Andante / Hora Dracului Sérénade romantique Russian Gypsy sketches a) Little gate (Kalitka) b) Gypsyana (Dance Tzigane) Lily of the valley Avant de mourir Romany moods a) Chrysanthemums b) The new moon is shining When a Gypsy makes his violin cry A roumanian lark (Ciorcarlia)	Continental Varieties #5002 Dicitencello vuie (Just tell her I love her) Gypsy in blue Autum leaves (Les feuilles mortes) Granada (Fantasia española) La vie en rose Valse pizzicato Core 'ngrato (Catari, catari) (Faithless heart) Dark eyes (Otchi tchomyia) Mon coeur est un violon (My heart is a violin) Medley a) Havah Nagilah (Come let's rejoice) b) Bucharestian street song (Traditional) Amiota magat szeretem (Since I love you) Wien du Stadt meiner traum (Vienna, city of my dreams) España cani (Paso-Doble)	Romantic Moods #5003 Irene Serenade (Rimpianto) Etude in E Major, Opus 10 No 3 Love Theme from "La Strada" Yiddish Fantasy Serenade from Ballet "Les Millions d'Arlequin" Themes from Concerto for Parted lovers Clair De Lune Meditation from opera "Thais Barcarole from opera "Tales of Hoffmann"	Sharika #5004 Somewhere my love Doina I wish you love Tango of love Medley a) Love me with all your heart b) El relicanto Gossiping Canaries Sharika Don't cry of love (Nur nicht aus Liebe Weinen) Danny boy Golden earrings Israeli dances


A Touch of Love #5005 Romanian rhapsody Hej cigany a) Greetings of the women of Budapest b) Play Gypsy, dance Gypsy Russian Gypsy medley Touch of love Fiddler on the roof Hungarian Dance #5 The whistler (Answer song) Spanish romance French medley a) La Seine b) Mademoiselle de Paris c) Pigalle Excerpts from "The merry widow" To Dinah with love Lark	World of Music #5006 LP Impromptu Records ST-1016 Gossiping Canaries Etude in E Major, Opus 10 No 3 Mon coeur est un violon (My heart is a violin) Clair de lune from "Suite bergamasque" Serenade romantique Doina (A roumanian caprice) España cani Somewhere my love Barcarole from opera "Tales of Hoffmann" When a Gypsy makes his violin cry Dicitencello vuie (Tell her I love her) Golden earrings Havah Nagilah	Forever My Love #5007 Mexican dance (Cinco de mayo) Hope Faith and Courage Forever my love Confused Gypsy Night in Madrid A song of love Returning memories (Lamento) Shari Waltz Hebrew melodies a) The Cantor b) Chassidic dances c) The Hora Destino del toro (Destiny of the bull) That summer night Memories of you Jamaican Rhythm Don't say goodbye Wedding anniversary song Melody on E (Loneliness) After a Waltz Midnight in Paris	Love, Passion, Fire #5008 Souvenir de Andalusia China market Charlotte's tango I think of you Echoes of the mountains Song of the Sabath Gypsy rhumba (Rhumba Gitana) Waltz with me You're my first and only love Don't you care ? Serenada español Stripper's blues It was an autum night Won't you come home for Christmas Spirits in the other World


Shalom #5009 Bei mir bistu Shein Medley a) At the fireplace b) My naive cousin c) Befornightfall Raisins and Almonds Medley a) As beautifull as the moon b) Josph, Joseph c) Let peace come A Jewish mother Medley a) Jerusalem of gold b) Next year (Hashana Haba) c) Havah Nagilah d) Wedding song Medley a) Halleluya b) May you be blessed c) Greetings of peace God, Oh God why have You forsaken us The romanian emigrant Symphony of the Holocaust a) Song of the Holocaust b) The Prayer c) Song of Liberation d) Commemoration e) The joy of life and freedom	From Shony With Love #5010 Lark Gypsy in blue Serenade romantique Sharika Touch of love Yiddish fantasy Whistling Gypsy Tango of love To Dinah with love Spanish romances Israeli dances The romanian emigrant You and I Symphony of the Holocaust a) Song of the Holocaust b) The Prayer c) Song of Liberation d) Commemoration e) The joy of life and freedom	Live in Concert #5011 Symphony of the Holocaust and personal testimony Philharmonic Orchestra Romanian rhapsody Rerenade romantique Jerusalem of gold You and I Hungarian folk melodies Espana cani Symphony of the Holocaust a. Song of the Holocaust b. The prayer c. Song of liberation d. Song of commemoration e. The joy of life and freedom Romanian emigrant Variations on russian folk melodies The lark
__________ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Collections Describes playing the violin for SS guards in Dachau. The two prisoners before him had been killed. [1990 interview] When I got out of the barrack, I figured when my turn comes to play, I'm gonna play which I feel comfortable. I'm gonna play either a sonatina by Dvorak, which I performed, in fact, later I performed in Radio Munich, but which...or I'm gonna play, uh, a Kreisler composition. But when, when I saw what I saw, and the violin in my hand, my mind went completely blank. Nothing came to me. And I said to myself, "God, how is it that sonatina starts? How is, how is, how is the, the Kreisler piece starts? My God, how, how does anything starts?" I couldn't think of anything. And now I noticed, from the corner of my eyes, that the murderer Kapo picked up his iron pipe again and was walking toward me. And I knew I'm gonna be killed. I knew it. So my right hand and my left hand all of a sudden started moving in perfect harmony. And the Strauss Blue Danube was heard coming out of my violin. Now, how? I never thought of the Blue Danube. Never. I heard it, in fact, I, I am even, hate to admit to you, I never even played it really. I heard it many times from the Gypsies, and my brother, who was a fantastic accordionist in his high school group. But playing, I was not even allowed to play anything else but classical. And the Kapo looked at, eagerly, to, to the SS, "When shall I whack him? When shall I hit him?" Instead, the SS guard was humming the melody, and was beating the rhythm with his fingers--like 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. And he, he just smiled and, "Let him live."

Describes how music gave him the strength to survive while imprisoned in concentration camps [1992 interview] The Symphony of the Holocaust, the melodies came to me while in con...concentration camp, and here is another thing that probably helped survive bes...beside God's will. Because when I got that despondent, that terrible low, that I was about to touch the, uh, barbed wire, I would say to myself first, "Why don't you, why don't you just play, in quotation, meaning play, goes through in your head. "Why don't you just play that movement which you just learned from before you were taken, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. Let's see if you can rem...remember." That gave me strength. I went through, while I was hitting the wood with the hammer, or I was, uh, lifting the heavy things which I really couldn't lift, but I lifted because there is a will to lift, you know, that stone, the salt stone. Some of them they were dynamiting, you know, and they were not telling us in time, so they killed many, many of us. But at any rate, so that gave me also an incentive to live. So this is how it started, and then another concentration camp, which, where I went, different melodies came to me. I couldn't write it down, but it came over and over and over, and when I had a chance I wrote it down, but only about five or six years ago that I completed it in a form of a symphony.