The Rifleman Who Fiddled For Truman, Churchill And Stalin

[Ada Lovelace]

I learned about the Potsdam Revisited: Overture to the Cold War project about the "intersection of history and music that took place at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945" on my school's forum and then found the article about Stuart Canin on NPR.

Seventy years ago, shortly after defeating Nazi Germany, three victorious leaders met in Potsdam, just outside Berlin. President Harry Truman was there with British and Soviet leaders Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. Stuart Canin was also there — he was a 19-year-old GI from New York City who played the violin.

Canin was drafted and sent to Europe as an Army rifleman, and he took along his instrument. He went on to become a successful violinist and concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony, and he's the subject of a short documentary film called The Rifleman's Violin. He's now 89, and he spoke with NPR's Robert Siegel about a monumental political meeting that he remembers from a unique perspective.

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What a fascinating and inspiring man.