In 1990, a suitcase was discovered in Prague, hidden since the beginning of World War Two. Its contents revealed a treasure-trove of musical and personal memorabilia belonging to the composer and pianist Gideon Klein, murdered by the SS aged just 25. Much of the suitcase’s contents remained ignored until David Fligg began the slow process of revealing its secrets. Join David as he discusses his new biography on Klein based on these discoveries, and rare interviews with people who remembered him. Delve into Klein’s story of how an astonishingly talented teenager mixing with Prague’s inter-war musical elite, found himself making music under Nazi occupation and imprisonment, leading to his tragic death.
Dr. David Fligg is Honorary Research Fellow at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music and Visiting Professor at Chester University. He has published widely on Gideon Klein. The Czech version of ‘Don’t forget about me’ was published under the title ‘Letter from Gideon’ to mark Klein’s centenary in 2019, for which David co-directed the Czech Republic based festival ‘Gido’s coming home!’. David can be contacted at: david.fligg@rncm.ac.uk
Event held in partnership with Huddersfield Literature Festival