Norbert Stern, a Jew in Nazi-held Belgium, was a young pianist acclaimed in the press as “brilliant and full of promise.” In 1942, as conditions worsened for the Jews, Norbert was compelled to leave the Brussels Conservatory of Music where he had been a premier student winning a series of prestigious competitions. Soon thereafter he and his family were forced to go into hiding and hoped to wait out the war. But this was not to be. Two years later the Sterns were denounced and their hiding place discovered. The family was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp and it was there, not long after, that Norbert met his death at 21 years old.
 
Dedication is a tribute by Roger Peltzman, nephew of Norbert Stern, to a brilliant performer the world would never know. The CD is an all-Chopin program, chosen to commemorate Norbert’s particular love, and was recorded in the Brussels Conservatory of Music on the same stage where Norbert himself had played. The Conservatory is a beautiful and acoustically rich concert hall and with its intimate connection to Norbert Stern was chosen as the most meaningful place to commemorate a young life lost and a talent tragically destroyed.
 
Roger Peltzman is a pianist and teacher in New York City. He has performed six solo concerts at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall during the last 12 years. He is a faculty member at America’s oldest music school, New York’s Third Street Music School. For more info: Rogerpeltzman.com