The Lady in Number 6

The Lady in Number 6 - Malcolm Clarke's documentary profiles 109-year-old pianist Alice Herz Sommer, the oldest living Holocaust survivor, who shares her story on the importance of music, laughter and how to live a long happy life. 

From Huffington Post:

Alice Herz-Sommer is known for her grace and wisdom. The 109-year-old, who is the oldest living pianist and Holocaust survivor, is undoubtedly one of the most inspirational people in the world.

Now, a documentary called "The Lady In Number 6" is telling her incredible story from beginning to end -- but just the 11-minute preview in itself is amazing enough.

"Every day in life is beautiful," Herz-Sommer says in the video above. "Every day. It's beautiful."

The 38-minute-long documentary is directed by Malcolm Clarke and produced by Nicholas Reed and has already been shortlisted for the Academy Awards' documentary short subject category, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Website dedicated to Alice -> http://nickreedent.com

Video of Alice -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oxO3M6rAPw

Book on Alice -> A Century of Wisdom by Caroline Stoessinger

Legacy of Begum Akhtar

From the Hindu Business Line:

Once the toast of cultural circles, artistes and musicians often slip out of public memory as soon as they quit the stage. The late Begum Akhtar still rules hearts in the world of classical music, but in her home State, Uttar Pradesh, her soul-stirring voice has all but faded from the minds of music lovers. In fact, even as preparations are on nationally to celebrate her centenary year - in 2014 - the place of her birth and musical taleem (education) remains oblivious to her legacy.

But that may change soon if 80-year-old Shanti Hiranand has her way. A student of the great vocalist, Shanti has teamed up with fans of Begum Akhtar to revisit her work and has even restored her grave, which once lay forgotten in old Lucknow’s Thakurganj area.

Born in Faizabad, Begum Akhtar later moved to Lucknow and made it her home. She passed away here in 1974 aged 60 and is buried at a two-grave cemetery next to her mother, Mushtari Sahiba.

See biography of Begum Akhtar at Cultural India

Women of Note

From Limelight Magazine:

Australia may be known as the lucky country, but it must not have seemed that way to many of the homegrown female composers of the past century as they struggled to be taken seriously in their field. Margaret Sutherland's psychiatrist husband discouraged her from composing by diagnosing her as mentally insane; Miriam Hyde was advised by a publisher to adopt “M. Hydekovsky” as her nom de plume; Peggy Glanville-Hicks declared that a woman must be not as good as men but better in order to succeed – and she wasn’t just talking about composing.

It is these attitudes to women creating music and making their voices heard that prompt journalist Rosalind Appleby to describe classical composition as a “battleground”. It’s the subject of her new book Women of Note, which has its Sydney launch at the Australian Music Centre on March 8 for International Women’s Day.

Ancient Egyptian Female Singer

From ZME Science:

A team of archaeologists from Egypt and Switzerland unearthed the 3100 year-old tomb of a female singer in the valley of the kings – a woman not related to the ancient Egyptian royal families ever found there.

Image by David Khalil

This was published on numerous sites with faulty information, reporting that the tomb was 1100 years old (like this article from the Independent), but that’s wrong, displaying yet again how badly science reporters sometimes treat their data. The body found was buried in 1100 BC, as in 1100 years before the year 0.

The singer’s name was Nehmes Bastet, which means she believed she was protected by the feline deity called Bastet, and her coffin was incredibly intact. It was actually found by accident, as archaeologists weren’t even looking for new tombs. What’s even more interesting is that the tomb wasn’t built originally for her, but 400 years earlier, it was built for someone else, though scientists can’t say for whom.

Film: Mozart's Sister

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

In the 18th century, social convention dictated women in Europe were not allowed to play the violin. Maria Anna ''Nannerl'' Mozart, born in 1751, was brilliant at it. Women were not meant to be composers. Nannerl was an inspired composer.

But she had a talented younger brother, Wolfgang, who got all the attention

The story is only partly speculative, told as if from inside the Mozart family. It is definitely intriguing and perhaps a little sad. After the first burst of life as a young prodigy, Nannerl's evident talents had to be left unused when Wolfgang overtook her place in their father's ambitions.