Real name:
Biography:
BA, Georgia State University: German, minor in music history
MA, Wichita State University: history, music, and German
graduate work in German language and linguistics, translation
post-graduate research: Holocaust studies and Eastern Europe post WWII (especially 1945-1991); research focusing on composers interned in the Terezin ghetto and their compositions.
Current research areas:
Music during the Holocaust, particularly in the camps, focusing especially on the Theresienstadt/Terezin ghetto; the works and lives of specific composers who were imprisoned during the Holocaust (especially Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas, and Hans Krasa); Czechoslovak history during the Cold War, particularly during the 1950's (the show trials) as well before, during and after the Prague Spring and the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops; the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), focusing on the Stasi as well as daily life as it was experienced during that time.
Recent scholarly activity:
Founded and currently direct The Terezin Composers Project Foundation. The TCPF supports research on composers and other musicians who were persecuted during the Holocaust, particularly those (but not exclusively) who were interened in the Terezin/Theresienstadt Ghetto. Research is presented in lectures, recitals and concerts, and at Holocaust commemorations. Recent lectures/concerts focused on the rehearsals and performance of Verdi's Requeim in Terezin during the Holocaust; the establishment of the Terezin Ghetto and its original purposes; musical activities in the ghetto; other cultural activities in the ghetto and the reality of daily life experienced by the prisoners; music by the composers Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas, Hans Krasa, Erwin Schulhoff (a composer who perished during the Holocaust but was not imprisoned in Terezin); children's lives in Terezin, with a focus on the journal Vadem, the compilation of art and writings by children in the book I Never Saw Another Butterfly, and the rehearsals and performances of Hans Krasa's children's opera Brundibar (with survivor Ela Stein Weissberger, who performed the role of the Cat in the opera in Terezin).
Other activities:
As Executive Director of the Terezin Composers Project Foundation, member of the Wichita Holocaust Council
Previously taught German at Northfield School of the Liberal Arts.
Guest lecturer on music history and composers, the Holocaust, and the Terezin Ghetto (with focus on musical activities of prisoners).
Founder and Executive Director, Camp Allegro Wichita, a music day camp for youth ages 4 - 24.