Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • Spring 2026 29 Bk Reviews tragedies. In the process, Kennedy also documents a personal quest to define the role of the cello in her own life. She hopes that by bringing to light the stories of these cellos and their players, she can find reconciliation and confidence in her own musical life. The cellists whose instruments Kennedy tracks include Lise Cristiani (c1824–1853), the long-forgotten first female cello soloist who died of cholera while touring Siberia; Pál Hermann (1902–1944), a promising Hungarian musician murdered by the Nazis; Amedeo Baldovino (1916–1998), who lost his cello during a shipwreck near Argentina; and Anita Lasker-Wallfisch (born 1925), who, although she stayed alive in the Auschwitz concentration camp because she was the only cellist in the orchestra there, lost her instrument at the end of the war. Kennedy's travels to trace the cellos' movements were extensive, taking her to England, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, and Poland. Interludes between the book's chapters detailing her detective work approach the subject of cellos in a philosophical way. In addition to her sojourns around Europe, she visits someone who has turned a cello into a beehive and investigates the progress on developing a prefabricated cello that will be accessible to more people. These side trips are quite fascinating, and she expertly connects them with her larger quest around the missing cellos. Although she doesn't completely succeed in locating the cellos, what she does accomplish is just as valuable—ending the silence of the music made by these instruments and their musicians, and reminding the world of their existence. She also elucidates the relationships cellists and cellos have with each other. I found Cello to be quite readable and enthralling, and it gave me a deeper understanding and appreciation for this instrument. PLAYING FOR FREEDOM: THE JOURNEY OF A YOUNG AFGHAN GIRL By Zarifa Adiba and Anne Chaon Amazon Crossing, 2024 P laying for Freedom is the memoir of Zarifa Adiba, formerly the violist and co-conductor of Zohra, the first all- women orchestra in Afghanistan and the region. She begins by relating her experience of performing with Zohra in 2017 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, at 18 years old. Zarifa does an excellent job of making her feelings and experiences come alive to the reader and explaining how music was forbidden by the Taliban, who controlled her country. Because of this, she had to be secretive about performing around her strictly religious extended family members, although her immediate family was aware of her interests. She also could not take her viola out of her school, the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), so as not to advertise she was a musician. In a world where daily life was made supremely challenging by bombings and other forms of violence, and where schooling was beginning to be considered less of a priority (although the Taliban hadn't yet made it illegal for females to attend school or university), Zarifa demonstrated a powerful commitment to her musical studies. As she writes, she interweaves events in her life at that time with stories from her past, many of which are about her chaotic upbringing and home life: she had an illiterate mother prone to extreme mood swings, and her entire immediate family was rigidly controlled by her late father's family (who subscribed to an ideology that considered women as basically the property of men). Her early life also involved a lot of moving multiple times between Pakistan and Kabul. Zarifa eventually achieved her goals of graduating high school and earning a degree from the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where she studied International Politics. Her strength of character and strong commitment to justice and helping her country are remarkable and admirable. However, I was disappointed not to learn more about the ins and outs of her musical studies. She continues to mention throughout her memoir that she was always drawn to music and it was the main force that led to her later successes, but the reader never learns anything about the processes through which she learns the music she performs. After the first third of the book, music takes a back seat to her efforts to secure an education and her independence. Other than occasionally restating that music remained her passion, she never details what role, if any, music continued to play in her life. The book's title, plus the synopsis and author photo—in which she holds her viola—seem to indicate that music will play a significant role in the book. But readers who are expecting this will be disappointed. Nevertheless, the book is an inspiring story of resilience and hope. Kathi Bower Peterson is a graduate of Indiana University, where she majored in music history and oboe, and was a member of the Iota Epsilon chapter. She also has an MM (in musicology) from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign and an MLIS from San Jose State University. She has been the librarian at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla, California since 1997 and currently serves as the treasurer of the San Diego Alumnae Chapter. She recently finished serving three terms as Coordinator of Scholarships for SAI Philanthropies, Inc.

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