The year is 1900 and life was about to change in a big way for Jaro Bauer. He and his father leave their small Bohemian village for the coal mines of western Canada in the search for a better life. After crossing the Atlantic Ocean and riding a train across the great plains of Canada, they find mining work in the Rocky Mountains.

Jaro is just 12 years old when his father dies in a tragic mining accident and is soon placed in an orphanage in Calgary. His only friend was a violin his grandfather had given him. He knew his country’s folk music but little else until Annie Broder took the young Jaro Bauer into her care at the Calgary Music Conservatory. Annie Broder recognized Jaro’s exceptional musical ability.

After several years at the Conservatory, the first examination in Canada by a musical examiner from London came along. The prize: a two-year scholarship to study music at London’s Royal Academy of Music. Song and Symphony follows Jaro Bauer’s development as a classical musician and his adventures with friends Oskar Baarova and Maria Landon.