In 2012, Carl Davis directed the premiere in Manchester of his “dramatic narrative” Last Train to Tomorrow, about the Kindertransport, the evacuation of 10,000 Jewish children from central Europe in the late 1930s to save them from the threat of the Holocaust.
The following year a choir from my daughter’s primary, Akiva school, north London, sang a selection from it for a Kristallnacht remembrance for the Association of Jewish Refugees at Belsize Square synagogue. I had the pleasure of turning the pages for Carl as he played the challenging piano accompaniment – he had given himself a demanding task.
My daughter and I had been avid fans of the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice, and particularly Carl’s music for it. He was invited back in 2014 to Akiva, where he accompanied the children when they included some of the songs in their Year 6 leaving show, a play telling the story of evacuees, this time with my daughter turning pages for him. He was as encouraging as he was gifted.
