Hans Winterberg, born in Prague in 1901, studied with Alexander von Zemlinsky and Alois Hba. He worked as a conductor, pianist and composer until the annexation of the Czechoslovak Republic by Nazi Germany in 1939. As the scion of a Jewish family that had lived in Prague for centuries, he survived - after forced labour and deportation to Theresienstadt - through a series of miracles. After the Communists came to power in Czechoslovakia, he moved to Germany. His compositional legacy, locked away for years in a German music archive, has only been rediscovered in recent years.