| Biography | Bela Dekany was a Holocaust survivor, having been sent to an Austrian slave labour camp, then to Bergen-Belsen and finally Theresienstadt, but went on to become an institution in the orchestral world. Most of Belas relatives were murdered along the way. His mother miraculously managed to survive with him, but died of starvation in May 1945 a few hours after Theresienstadt became the final camp to be liberated. The Soviet army doctors were unable to save her. Bela was one of the last two concentration camp survivors who were professional musicians in Britain.
Dekany, who died aged 94, was leader of the BBC Symphony Orchestra for 23 years from 1969, working with conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Pierre Boulez, Sit John Pritchard and Sir Andrew Davis. Dekany formed a Dekany String Quartet in Holland in the 1960s before joining the BBC as concertmaster of its flagship orchestra and also the Philharmonia. He performed for Yehudi Menuhin, both as a child before the war and again after it and many times at that most British of institutions, the Last Night of The Proms, meeting many dignitaries such as Princess Diana. |