The tragic death of Gideon KIein, an extraordinarily gifted composer and pianist, was one of the heaviest losses for Czech music in the cruel years of the Second World War.
Born to a Jewish family, Klein was brought up immersed in Czech cultural traditions. From childhood he showed unusual musical talent, and when he was eleven he took piano lessons from Ruzena Kurzova. After finishing grammar school in 1938, he went on to the Master School of the Prague Conservatory to take piano classes from Vilem Kurz, at the same time studying Music Theory at Charles University.
The tragic course of history, however, hampered futher growth of this unique talent. The young artist succeeded in completing the Master School in one year but his University studies, as well as his compositions lessons with Alois Haba, were cut off by the closing down of the Czech Universities in November 1939.
Of his musical generation, Klein was an outstanding personality with an extraordinary musical genius, and his concert performances were considered unrepeatable artistic experiences. His compositions of that period, many of which were discovered as late as 1990, showed an intensive search for his own way of expression, including work with microintervals and free tonality. In spite of all this, performances of his works were held under more and more difficult circumstances: first under a pseudonym, later only in the strict privacy of  "apartment concerts".
In December 1941, Klein was deported to the then newly-established ghetto in Terezin, where he spent three years. This intelligent, hardworking, talented young man soon became one of the leading personalites of Terezin's cultural life, ceaselessly keeping up the highest demands on the quality of his artistic work, under almost impossible conditions. Here he collaborated musically with his fellow inmates Karel Ancerl, Rafael Schachter, Hans Krasa, Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Karel Berman and others. Besides performing and composing, Klein gave lectures, educated the young inmates and in many other ways contributed to the social and intellectual life ot the ghetto. In those extremely difficult conditions, he created a number of excellent compositions (piano sonata, string trio, quartets, choral works), which were found only by chance many years later.
At the end of 1944, Klein was transported to Auschwitz and shortly after to the Furstengrube concentration camp in the Silesian coal mines, where he died under unclear circumstances on the very threshold of freedom.
In Klein's compositions we can hear a great musical talent which was evident in a young composer (he was only 25 when arrived at Terezin), who was constantly looking for his own style. Inspired at first by Moravian folklore, he went on to emulate Leos Janacek, Vitezslav Novak and mainly Arnold Schonberg, as well as trying to combine and synthesize all these influences. His strong creative gift enabled him to work and develop even under the inhuman conditions of his imprisonment. Klein's compositions are not appreciated merely as the evidence of a talent destroyed by war, but they are truly significant works of art, greatly contributing to the treasury of European classical music.