Firebird with Authors Nora Jean and Michael H. Levin

Saturday July 29, 4:00 PM: Firebird with Authors Nora Jean and Michael H. Levin

Chilmark seasonal residents and Washington DC authors will give a multi-media book-launch reading on Firebird: The Musical Life and Times of [classical pianist] Rebecca Burstein-Arber as told to Nora Jean and Michael H. Levin. Their book seats readers beside Jean’s formidable aunt Rebecca (1894-1993), then age 87, sharing cinematic recollections of Tsarist pogroms, command performances in Imperial Germany, a perilous cross-border passage during WW1, concerts in freezing halls for Red Army soldiers during the Russian Revolution.

Rebecca was a child prodigy whose bassoonist father played under Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1924, Rebecca left Europe’s concert halls to perform and teach in tiny primitive Mandate Palestine. In 1965 Ha’aretz described her as a “living legend to her students, present and past, who today are musicians and teachers all over the [world].”  In 1985 she was awarded the Keys to the City of Tel Aviv for her seminal role bringing classical music to “the land of Israel.”  

The Levins will highlight their 40-year quest to grasp the historical context behind interviews they conducted 1979-1985, and will include select readings of Rebecca’s first-person tales; archival photos; a 1989 video clip of the authors talking about their young project; and audio of Rebecca describing her open-air Beethoven performance at the new Hebrew University atop Mt. Scopus (1927).

Jean’s career has spanned teaching, writing, consulting, entrepreneurial, and non-profit roles. Michael is an environmental lawyer, solar energy developer and writer.

Email tthorpe@clamsnet.org for more information.

Free. Sponsored by the Friends of the Chilmark Library. 508-645-3360