Virginia Eskin to Perform Women's Music of the Holocaust at Keene State
KEENE, N.H., 2/5/07 - Guest pianist Virginia Eskin, Keene State College faculty members Gladys Johnsen (mezzo-soprano) and Diane Cushing (soprano), and the KSC Chamber Singers, directed by Elaine Ginsberg, will perform “Women’s Music of the Holocaust and/or Nazi Invasions” on Monday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond at Keene State. This performance is funded by KSC’s School of Arts and Humanities, Women’s Studies program, President’s Commission on the Status of Women, Diversity Commission, Department of Music, and Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies. The concert is free and open to the public.
Eskin will also present a lecture/recital earlier the same day at noon in the Mountain View Room of the Young Student Center. The evening’s program includes works by Ilse Weber, Vitezláva Káprolová, Fania Fénelon, Alma Rosé, Alma Mahler (all of whom had either fled their homes due to the Nazi Invasions or were sent to concentration camps between 1930 and 1945), and KSC music instructor, Elaine Ginsberg.
Virginia Eskin, a faculty member at Northeastern University in Boston, received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Keene State in 1994; she was recognized for her work as a concert pianist and music educator and her active role in summer music festivals in the Monadnock Region. Born in New York, she studied at Trinity College, London University, and earned the degree of Fellow of Music with honors. Her performance career has taken her throughout the United States, Europe, and Israel, where she has made concerto appearances with the Utah, San Francisco, Rochester, Louisville, and New Hampshire symphony orchestras, and the Israel Sinfonietta, the Boston Classical Orchestra, and the Boston Pops.
She has appeared as a guest soloist with the New York City Ballet and the London Mozart Players and in solo recitals and chamber performances in Amsterdan, Athens, London, Palm Beach, Pittsburgh, and San Diego. She appears frequently on college campuses as a speaker and performer, and has appeared as a guest on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. She is also currently presenting the 13-week, one-hour series First Ladies of Music with WFMT Radio Network.
Diane Cushing presently teaches voice and conducts the KSC Concert Choir. She is the founder and director of The Greater Gardner Youth Choir and The Mount Wachusett Community Choir of Gardner.
Gladys Johnsen is a professor of music and women’s studies at Keene State. She is the alto soloist at the United Church of Christ in Keene and most recently studied voice with Peter Hart of Sturbridge, Massachusetts.
Dr. Elaine Broad Ginsberg is currently conducting the KSC Chamber Singers as well as teaching music theory and composition; she also conducts the Hampshire College Chorus in Massachusetts. She was previously the Jewish community music director in the Springfield, Massachusetts, area.
