Alice Ehlers
A middle-aged woman with fair skin and dark hair and eyes, wearing a white blouse unders a cloth coat with a striped or ribbed texture
Alice Ehlers, from paperwork submitted to the United States Department of Justice in 1941
Born
Alice Pulai

April 16, 1887
Vienna, Austria
DiedMarch 1, 1981
Redondo Beach, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)Harpsichordist, music teacher
RelativesPeter M. Douglas (grandson)

Alice Ehlers (April 16, 1887 – March 1, 1981, born Alice Pulay, was an Austrian-born American harpsichordist and college professor.

Early life and education

Alice Pulay (or Pulai) was born in Vienna, the daughter of Ignaz Pulay and Karoline Pulay. Her family was Jewish. She studied piano with Theodor Leschetizky, music theory with Arnold Schoenberg, and harpsichord with Wanda Landowska in Berlin.[1][2]

Career

Ehlers was considered a skilled interpreter of baroque music, especially the works of Bach.[3][4] Despite the difficulties of touring with a harpsichord,[5] she toured in Palestine, Russia, and South America; she moved to England in 1933, and then to the United States in 1938, to escape Nazi Germany.[6] She appeared in the 1939 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, in which she plays "an acerbic rendition"[1] of Mozart's Rondo alla Turca on a double-manual harpsichord during a party scene.[7] She made a number of recordings on the Decca label in 1939.[8]

Beginning in 1941, Ehlers was a professor of harpsichord at the University of Southern California.[9] She founded the Southern California Junior Bach Festival. Malcolm Hamilton, Marilyn Horne, Michael Tilson Thomas, Carol Neblett, and Roger Wagner were among her students.[6][9][10][11] In 1954, she was appointed the Walker-Ames Lecturer in Music at the University of Washington.[12] In 1961, she was named the Brittingham Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin.[13][14]

She performed in concerts and recitals into her eighties.[11][15] In 1948 and 1949, she performed with Frieda Belinfante and Virginia Majewski in Los Angeles.[16][17] In 1952 she gave recitals with violinist Alex Murray.[18] She toured in the American midwest in 1957.[19] She gave concerts of baroque music with violist Eva Heinitz in 1949[20] and 1961.[21]

Ehlers was a friend and correspondent of Albert Schweitzer.[22] She gave benefit performances to raise funds for Schweitzer's medical work in Africa.[1][23]

Personal life and legacy

Ehlers married Alfred Walter Georg Ehlers in Berlin in 1910; they had two daughters, Maria and Christina, and later divorced. Ehlers died in 1981, in Redondo Beach, California, at the age of 93. [11]Her grandson, environmentalist Peter M. Douglas, traced some of his worldview to Ehlers's reverence for life and pacifism.[24][25] Recordings and transcripts of interviews she gave in 1965 and 1966 are held in special collections at UCLA.[26]

Some of her letters from Albert Schweitzer were donated to Chapman University.[27] They were translated and published in 1991.[28] In 1997, a stage adaptation of her letters with Albert Schweitzer was produced at Chapman University.[29]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ivry, Benjamin (2011-05-04). "'Dear Little Sister Cembalo,' the Viennese Harpsichordist Alice Ehlers". The Forward. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  2. ↑ Palmer, Larry. "Harpsichord Playing in America After Landowska" The Diapason (June 2011): 19-20.
  3. ↑ Egan, Patricia (February 8, 1939). "Alice Ehlers, Brilliant Harpsichordist, Renders Compositions of Early Artists". The Vassar Miscellany News. pp. 1–2 – via Hudson River Valley Heritage: Historical Newspapers.
  4. ↑ "Unique Music Event Hailed". The Pomona Progress Bulletin. 1942-07-14. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ "Alice Ehlers, Harpsichordist, To Play at Mills College". Oakland Tribune. 1938-11-27. p. 19. Retrieved 2023-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 Crawford, Dorothy L. (2009-06-23). A Windfall of Musicians: Hitler's Emigres and Exiles in Southern California. Yale University Press. pp. 57–59. ISBN 978-0-300-15548-8.
  7. ↑ "Alice Ehlers (Harpsichord) - Short Biography". Bach Cantatas Website. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  8. ↑ "Alice Ehlers". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  9. 1 2 Boekelheide, Alex (2005-02-09). "Making Way for Beautiful Music". USC News. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  10. ↑ Hughes, Allen (1974-04-13). "Malcolm Hamilton Excels In a Harpsichord Recital". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  11. 1 2 3 Galbraith, Jane (1981-03-09). "Teacher Gave New Life to Old Instrument". The Los Angeles Times. p. 28. Retrieved 2023-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "Alice Ehlers Honored; Soprano Wins Award". Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. 1954-04-09. p. 9. Retrieved 2023-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Alice Ehlers Named Brittingham Professor". Wisconsin State Journal. 1961-08-31. p. 23. Retrieved 2023-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Harpsichord Artist Schedules Talks with Piano Teachers". Wisconsin State Journal. 1962-01-03. p. 15. Retrieved 2023-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "Alice Ehlers Next Symphony Guest". The Salt Lake Tribune. 1945-11-25. p. 49. Retrieved 2023-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Ancient music on ancient instruments (concert program)", Califsphere, 1948-07-25, retrieved 2023-07-18
  17. ↑ "Antique Instrument Ensemble to Play". The Los Angeles Times. 1949-07-17. p. 95. Retrieved 2023-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ "Pair Will Appear in Three Recitals". The Los Angeles Times. 1952-12-07. p. 120. Retrieved 2023-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ "Miss Ehlers to Substitute on Program". The Los Angeles Times. 1957-01-27. p. 93. Retrieved 2023-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ "Ancient Instruments to Feature in Concert". The Province. 1949-11-14. p. 15. Retrieved 2023-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ↑ "Two to Play Baroque Music". Wisconsin State Journal. 1961-12-03. p. 44. Retrieved 2023-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ↑ Schweitzer, Albert; Bergel, Kurt (1991). Albert Schweitzer and Alice Ehlers: A Friendship in Letters. University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-8191-8327-9.
  23. ↑ "Capacity Throng Will Hear Symphony's Schweitzer Hospital Fund Concert". The Pomona Progress Bulletin. 1943-03-30. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ Osborne, Thomas J. (2018). Coastal Sage: Peter Douglas and the Fight to Save California's Shore. Univ of California Press. pp. 8, 142. ISBN 978-0-520-28308-4.
  25. ↑ Woo, Elaine (April 4, 2012). "Peter M. Douglas dies at 69; California Coastal Commission chief". Los Angeles Times.
  26. ↑ Tusler, Adelaide G. "Interview of Alice Ehlers" UCLA Library, Center for Oral History Research.
  27. ↑ "Collection: Albert Schweitzer, Alice Ehlers letters, 1928-1988 | ArchivesSpace Public Interface". Chapman University Libraries. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
  28. ↑ Schweitzer, Albert; Bergel, Kurt (1991). Albert Schweitzer and Alice Ehlers: A Friendship in Letters. University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-8191-8327-9.
  29. ↑ "Sunday Theater". The Los Angeles Times. 1997-09-10. p. 337. Retrieved 2023-07-18 – via Newspapers.com.
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