In July 2025, the cellist, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, turned 100. Hers is an extraordinary story which began in pre-War Germany before becoming a post-war refugee in the United Kingdom. In between, she survived internment in both Auschwitz and Belsen while, across the past 30 years, she has been a strong advocate that we must learn from past atrocity. Her husband, Peter, was my piano teacher in London: recognised as a child talent of Jewish heritage in Germany, he was sent to Palestine in 1938. He too later ended up in the UK where he contributed much to advocacy of contemporary British music through broadcast and performance. 

Having been seeking already to create a tribute to Anita and Peter, the PGVIS 'Wonderland' call stimulated thought around a complex world of intertwining escapist inceptions involving personal stories, political histories, technological evolution, and creative response. The proposed presentation seeks to unpack some of these considerations at an early stage of planning for multimedia concert presentation in 2026. The repertoire to be explored involves solo and chamber works by Bridge, Debussy, Messiaen and Poulenc, with the Wonderland concepts including ideas of nation, of imagination, of the piano as portal, of cruise liners as floating palaces, of birds as angels, and of AI as author. 

How do humans look in themselves to find Light and Hope in such contexts? What starts as a highly personal story offers a portal for interrogating some vast questions around the blurred boundaries of perspective around truth, fiction and creative representation.