If only this piano could talk.
But of course, in the right hands, played by the right musician, it can.
And on Saturday night it will.
And what a story it has to tell.
The Steinway baby grand piano that is today housed at Congregation Ner Shalom in Cotati will be a centerpiece of a live performance from acclaimed New York-based musician Susan Salm. And it has a back story for the ages.
Salm, co-founder of the Raphael Trio and a professional cellist who will perform with the piano at a concert at Ner Shalom Saturday night, knows the story better than most.
The piano is a Steinway Model O, crafted in Hamburg, Germany. It was an engagement gift from Salm’s father, Arthur Salm of Cologne to his fiancee, Erna Mann, a concert pianist.
It was gifted in 1934.
Fast forward a couple of tumultuous years. The Salms, now married, had acquired a second piano by the time Nazi persecution of Jews was escalating and terrorizing a nation.
In the face of Nazi theft of both Jewish families’ goods and businesses, the Salms had both pianos, as well as Arthur’s personal library, shipped to a warehouse in Rotterdam.