Montville cellist Sam Lucas to play at global Holocaust Concert
- by Richard Bruinsma
The career of Montville cellist Sam Lucas will take an emotional leap when he performs with a priceless cello for global leaders and a worldwide audience at the Holocaust Memorial Concert in the European Parliament on January 29.
Mr Lucas has been invited to play the circa 1720 Nicolo Gagliano cello, which had been ‘lost’ in the years after World War II, after it was miraculously and unexpectedly re-discovered thanks to one of his performances.
“This is an experience on a scale I have not quite experienced yet in my career,” Sam said of the pending concert performance in Brussels.
“I'm extremely excited, honoured and anxious at the same time. What is most important to me is the cause - honouring the victims of the Holocaust, and dedicating my performance to them, their families and their nations.
“It’s also an honour to do so on the Nicolo Gagliano, a cello owned by one of the victims during the second World War, Pal Hermann.
“By and large, this is a very personal and touching engagement for me, and I'm sure the emotions I experience will last forever.”
The Holocaust Concert has been organised by Pal Van Gastel, the grandson of the late cellist Pal Hermann, an international cellist who owned the Nicolo Gagliano before being arrested along with millions of other Jews, and murdered in the Holocaust.
A family friend rescued the priceless instrument from the Nazis by breaking into the Hermann’s house, switching the cello with a lesser instrument, and then escaping on his bicycle with the Gagliano strapped safely to his back. It was subsequently sold by the family in the early 1950s, and sold again in the 1960s to a mystery buyer, and this is where the tracking of its journey turned cold.
Sam had for several years been the custodian and sole performer of the beautiful handcrafted cello, courtesy of its owner, the Robert Schumann Hochschule music school in Dusseldorf, where he is a student.
It was during a performance by Sam at the Queen Elisabeth International Cello Competition in Brussels in mid-2022 where one of the judges noted its unusual markings and suspected that it might be the ‘lost’ cello. His hunch turned out to be accurate.
Mr Hermann’s orphaned daughter, Corrie Hermann, now 93, had her lifelong dream to once again hear her late father’s cello thanks to a surprise performance by Sam in London last September.
Sam’s most recent custodianship of the cello has led to him being chosen to play it at the upcoming memorial concert, which will be professionally recorded and live-streamed to 26 countries, and attended by many world leaders. Among items he will perform is a recently discovered five-movement cello concerto written by Pal Hermann.
“I think Sam fully appreciates what a privilege it is for him - the kid from Montville - to be associated with this particular event,” Sam’s father Ian Lucas said.
“It’s a special and almost unbelievable chain of events, a beautiful story, and a wonderful opportunity for Sam.”
Sam will also premiere a recently discovered Pal Hermann cello concerto in London and Paris in January and February 2026, as a soloist.
For more details about the mystery cello, visit: https://shorturl.at/ihUR6
Cellist, Pal Hermann
The European Parliament in Brussels, where the Holocaust concert will be held
Montville cellist, Sam Lucas