


Debbie Filler’s father Schaja is a Polish Jewish baker who loves music. As a girl, Debbie was raised on the story of Schaja survival of the Nazi death camps, and a remarkable event that changed how he viewed the world—seeing Leonard Bernstein perform Rhapsody in Blue at a Displaced person’s Camp after the war. The concert was a profound turning point for Schaja, a springboard from a deeply painful past into a hope-filled future. So when Bernstein arrives in town years later with the New York Philharmonic, Debbie—now a young woman— shows up to a rehearsal with the hope of meeting Bernstein and maybe even telling him the story. What happens next in the empty town hall is a performance she will never forget.