Edi (Eta) Tyrmand (1917–2008) spent her youth in Warsaw. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, she fled with her husband to the Soviet Union. She continued her music studies, which she had begun in Warsaw, at the conservatory in Minsk, where she met other Polish-Jewish musicians who had also fled, including Mieczysław Weinberg. Tyrmand survived the war years 1941–1945 thanks to her evacuation to Kyrgyzstan. She then spent the rest of her long life in Minsk, where she enjoyed high esteem as a composer, pianist, and university teacher. Tyrmand was the first woman to be accepted into the Belarusian Composers' Union, and her works, especially her chamber music, are still part of the concert repertoire there today. Outside the former Soviet Union, her intimate, colorful music has never been performed.

Violinist Linus Roth and pianist Jascha Nemtsov play works by the composer. Jascha Nemtsov talks to Johannes Schultz about her life and the historical context.