ALICE’S PIANO Survival through Music

COURSE LEADERS: Anita Fricklas, Judy Schwartz, Robin McNeil

MEETS: 10 Wednesdays TIME: 10:00am - 12:00pm

DATES COURSE MEETS: 9/17, 9/24, 10/1, 10/8, 10/15, 10/22, 10/29, 11/5, 11/12, 11/19

PRICE: $85.00

LOCATION: 8081 E. Orchard Rd., Greenwood Village, CO 80111 Map

TYPE: Lecture,Discussion,Reading

CATEGORY: HISTORY, LITERATURE & WRITING, MUSIC

NOTE:

$85 (includes two music CDs)
$75 (no CDs)

DESCRIPTION:

This combination literature, history and music course is a unique offering that will delight readers and music lovers alike. The life, times, and music of Alice Herz-Sommers are chronicled in the nonfiction book, Alice’s Piano. It was her artistic skills as well as her character which helped her survive her years in Theresienstadt, the concentration camp manipulated by the Nazis to appear to be something quite different from what it actually was. Listen to the works of Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven and others—with special attention to the Études—mastered and performed by Herz-Sommers . At the time of her death earlier this year at the age of 110, Alice was the oldest Holocaust survivor. Allow her story and the music that saved her life to fill your heart.

Required (or highly recommended) reading: Melissa Muller, Alice’s Piano: The Life of Alize Herz-Sommer (St. Martin’s Press, 2012).

COURSE LEADER:
Anita Fricklas

After graduating from high school, Anita Fricklas attended Boston University. Her career included many years as Director of Education at Temple Sinai. She later became the Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee. Most of her work has revolved around diversity, advocacy, and bigotry reduction. As a volunteer she has dedicated many hours at the Lupus Foundation of Colorado and the Arthritis Foundation writing columns about living well with chronic illness and encouraging the Federal delegation to prioritize lupus and arthritis in doling out research dollars. Anita has received many awards for her work. Two that stand out are the Anita Fricklas Award for Excellence in Education being established at Temple Sinai and Mayor Wellington Webb declaring December 6 2002 as Anita Fricklas Day.

COURSE LEADER:
Judy Schwartz

Judy Schwartz is a career teacher and counselor. She taught at Temple Sinai for many years. She taught English and coached the speech and debate team at Denver’s East High School, taught teachers in the Philippines as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1997 to 2000, taught and was the counselor at Emerson Street School, the former alternative school for expelled students, taught English in Guadalajara, Mexico, taught English acquisition classes in many Denver locations. Do you get the picture? Retired now from almost all of these positions, her time now is devoted to her children and four grandchildren and to hobbies and friends, all of which she loves dearly.

COURSE LEADER:
Robin McNeil

Robin McNeil began his study of piano at DePauw University at the age of four, taking lessons with Irene Soltas. He has a Bachelor of Music in Performance from Indiana University and a Master of Music in Performance from the University of Illinois. He began his teaching career at the University of Illinois and then went to the University of South Dakota where he was Chairman of the Piano Department.

He has performed more than 300 concerts throughout the United States and has written many musicology book reviews for Choice magazine of the American Library Association and Publisher’s Weekly, in addition to being an experienced music critic for newspapers. He is also a published poet, and the Denver composer, David Mullikin, has used his poems for art song texts.

In the past, Robin has been thoroughly involved in arts management as the Executive Director of the Fine Arts Center of Clinton (Illinois), State Treasurer of the Association of Illinois Arts Agencies, and member of the Long Range Planning Committee of the Central Illinois Cultural Affairs Consortium. Robin has been the Executive Director of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra and has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra Foundation.

Outside the sphere of music, Robin has raced Alfa Romeo and Ferrari automobiles and flown WW II vintage aircraft. He is a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Robin now lives with his wife in Littleton where he teaches privately and continues to do research on the French composer Théodore Gouvy. He is President of the Piano Arts Association, and an Honorary Member of the Institut Théodore Gouvy of Hombourg-Haut, France.