Chatting With Sherri welcomes multi award winning author; Stella Claire ter Hart

Chatting With Sherri welcomes; Stella Claire ter Hart is a well known composer, educator, adjudicator, accompanist and who is now semi-retired from her many musical endeavors.  She is a direct descendent from the Italian composer, Tomaso Vitali, and has many other musical family members and ancestors.  Stella is poignantly inspired by her rich European background which includes French Huguenot ancestors on her father’s side fleeing to the Netherlands in the 15th century to avoid persecution, and the loss of her maternal grandmother’s entire Jewish family (over 1,200 family members) in World War II concentration camps, among them her 79 year old great grandfather and the little 7 year old girl also called Stella.  

 "Discovering Twins" by Stella ter Hart (Winner of the BookView Review Gold Award and the Literary Titan Good Book Award) 

“My mother carried secrets and covered them with lies. She didn’t want to—they were forced upon her. Little by little her secrets gradually unraveled and became part of my existence. My mother was terrified her secrets would be discovered, and this terror dominated her life. My first glimpse came in 1978 when I traveled with my mother to Holland, the country of her birth and my ancestors. I was introduced to relatives I never knew existed—on both sides of the family.  Picking up on clues, I realized that my mother’s background was Jewish, Dutch Jewish, Holocaust Jewish.  She was unable to speak of it and I was forbidden to bring it up. After my mother died, I felt a freedom and obligation to discover more. What I uncovered was staggering and shocking.”