By Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Violinist Henry Meyer's contributions go far beyond the concert hall - "whether it's telling his story as a Holocaust survivor, giving house concerts or teaching," says Stefan Skirtz, executive director of the American Classical Music Hall of Fame, downtown.

IF YOU GO

What: Henry Meyer tribute When: 5 p.m., May 17, reception follows Where: Memorial Hall, 1225 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine Price: Free, open to the public Information: 621-3263

May 17 will be Henry Meyer Day in Cincinnati, when the Hall of Fame's board of trustees honors Meyer with its first Lifetime Achievement Award at a star-studded tribute in Memorial Hall.

Meyer, 80, retired a decade ago after teaching for 40 years at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He continued to teach around the globe until a hit-and-run accident last April in front of Music Hall. His recovery has been slow.

One of the founding members of the renowned LaSalle Quartet - CCM's first quartet-in-residence - he came to Cincinnati in 1953. The quartet made award-winning recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and performed premieres by many important composers.

"Henry taught hundreds of students at CCM and many of the great string quartets today were trained by the LaSalle," says William Friedlander, a chamber music supporter.

Born in Dresden, Germany, Meyer is a survivor of World War II death camps at Dresden, Buchenwald and Auschwitz.

He was slated for the gas chambers when a doctor recognized the former prodigy violinist and switched his identity with that of a dead man's. Although his entire family died, Meyer saved himself, in part, by playing cymbals in a camp band. After the war, his musical talent brought him to New York's Juilliard School.

"I am a winner. With me, all their effort failed," Meyer told the Enquirer in 2002, when his story was published in The Inextinguishable Symphony by Martin Goldsmith (John Wiley & Sons Inc.; $24.95).

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com