The Kraft Sonata, for violin & piano, written in Wappingers Falls, New York, 5/19/06-9/10/06, was composed to honor my uncle's humanism. As a teenager, Jerry Kraft listened to his parent's conversations about how certain relatives had begged them for financial assistance to get them out of Europe because of the posing threat of the Nazis. As threatening as this burgeoning Third Reich was, with its buildup of propaganda demonstrating its military might as well as human superiority, with Lena Weissmuller's Hollywood level propaganda, nobody was prepared for the savage satanic fury it was about to unleash, let alone believed it was consciously possible. His family, of very modest means, declined sending money to any of the relatives who were to be subsequently exterminated. Jerry never forgot about this. Being haunted by the power of one's actions, he inevitably became philanthropic in his modest way for the rest of his life. He was absolutely brilliant, earning degrees in chemistry and law, becoming a patent attorney for IBM. He would also prove to be a fan of my music and patron underwriting several different projects. It is with great pride I present this work honoring his most gracious soul!
About the Author: Hayden Wayne (born 3/2/49) (composer/librettist) began playing piano at the age of four and played tenor drum in the orchestra pit of The King And I at the age of five, performed his first composition in concert at the age of eleven, won 2nd Prize medal for piano solo from the New York State Music Awards at fifteen, performed with major-label backed bands as Man (CBS Records) and Jobriath (Elektra Records), and toured with Sly Stone, the Yardbirds with Jimmy Page, Billy Joel, The Chamber Brothers, Gordon Lightfoot, Richie Havens, Gladys Knight, The Fifth Dimension. As a composer, in 1983 Mr. Wayne opened a new theater for the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles with his metaphorical circus Wire, won $10,000 USD as national first place in 1987 from the National Institute for Music Theater with NEON (A Street Opera) . In 2002, NEON won a 25,000 DM prize in the International Prague Opera Competition. He was commissioned to write IN MEMORIAM: A CELEBRATION, by the Interfaith Concert of Holocaust Remembrance, which premiered at Saint John the Divine in New York in 1993. Subsequently linked with SINFONIETTA #1: The Klezmer and AN ELEGY INTO MADNESS, specifically commissioned for the Fiftieth Anniversary of Israel, and titled A TRIPTYCH, had its world première at Mandel Hall, the University of Chicago in January 1998. In February 1995, his SYMPHONY #4-FUNK had its world premiere at the Janacek Theatre in Brno, The Czech Republic. It sold out in one week seven months in advance. Mr. Wayne also has several film scores and award-winning commercials for television to his credit. To date, Mr. Wayne has written over four hundred compositions including: THE SYMPHONY OF FRIENDS, the ballet CIRQUE DE LA LUNE, DRACULA (Opera Erotica), PIANO CONCERTO #1-The Rock "n' Roll and CELLO CONCERTO #1 which are paired as a diptych: SINFONIETTA #2 (It's a Boy) and #3-The Emerald; VIOLIN/PIANO SONATA-The "Kraft"; The Symphonic Trilogy: #2-REGGAE, #3-HEAVY METAL, #4-FUNK; and SYMPHONY #5-AFRICA [A Tone Poem] (all recorded by the State Philharmonic of Brno, on New Millennium Records); the choral symphony SYMPHONY #6-THE GIFT; SYMPHONY #7-CELESTIAL DANCES and SYMPHONY #8-1421; THE NUZEROV STRING QUARTETS: #1-THE ROSENBERGER VARIATIONS, #2 THE ROMANTIC, # 3, 4 and 5, # 6,7 & 8, and # 9 & 10 performed by the Wallinger String Quartet; FIVE DANCES FOR CELLO AND PIANO and PIANO QUINTET #1 (all available on New Millennium Records) and hundreds of songs in various eclectic styles.