Last week, my good friend Mauro sent me this video clip. To say that this woman is an inspiration would be giving the word understatement a whole new meaning!
From NickReedEnt.com
Alice Herz-Sommer is 106 years old. As well as being the second oldest person living in London, England – she is more significantly the world’s oldest survivor of Hitler’s holocaust.
When she plays Schubert and Beethoven, it’s in a style that the world has long since forgotten.
To this day Alice Herz-Sommer still plays chamber music in the evenings with her few remaining friends. As she approaches her 107th birthday in November of 2010 she said, “I have had such a beautiful life. And life is beautiful, love is beautiful, nature and music are beautiful. Everything we experience is a gift, a present we should cherish and pass on to those we love”.
According to NickReedEnt.com, there is an Alice DVD coming in spring of 2011. I believe that I will go pre-order one right now. I hope that this video clip will move you as much as it moves me and countless others. Remarkable .. truly remarkable!
Update – June 1, 2013
Nicholas Reed contacted me to let and said:
Wanted to update you, we are finally finished!!. The film screens in LA for a week from May 31st, I wanted to share the link to the new trailer.
Here is the new trailer. Thanks for letting us know Nick!
Photo Credits
Thumbnail and Video Feature Image – Stills From Video
Recent Gil Namur Articles:
- Look After the Little Things
- Promenade
- Close Encounters Of The Google Kind
- Always In This Heart
- A Dance of Delight
Gil,
What a great update! I can’t wait to see the film. Thanks to you, and to Nick Reed, for sharing Alice’s story with us all.
Tess
Hey Tess,
Me too! Will be a very inspirational piece to watch!
Cheers,
Gil
hello. i am a high school student doing research on a student that lived in the Lodz Ghetto, and i was wondering what you know about the Lodz Ghetto. please get back to me asap. thank you
Dear Alice,
You have touched my soul with your humanity, your kindness, your soulful understanding of love in its purest form.
Your music truly reflects the deepness of your emotions and passion; it is so effortless so right, so beautiful.
Trying to explain to us what music is to you, you said … ” Music is …God” . All of your being was showing how deeply you felt what you where saying, and I felt you were trying to make us understand what you meant.
Looking at you as you where saying this, I understood that, as undefinable God and Music are, you found the way to express that they are both an example of the non ending and eternal possibilities we are offered. We only have to open our heart and soul to these possibilities, to find what is beautiful, pure and loving in life, share it and add to it through the music, we in turn, make of our life.
Dear Alice you are no doubt one of God’s angels on earth. In his infinite kindness he is keeping you with us as a shining beacon to follow as we navigate the storms that lay ahead. I pray that you enjoy many more birthdays and that your message and music be heard by all of those who so need to hear and be touched by it.
With many thanks for the inspirational message and beautiful music, HAPPY 107 Birthday Alice.
Carol A. Namur
“Do you play anything one of the inmates asked. Cello, she said. Fantastic, you will be saved.”
An extraordinary, complex statement that…Happy Birthday Alice and thank you Gil for bringing this particular item to Life As A Human…nothing could be more human than this…in every way.
Hi Michael,
She is … remarkable .. words fail.
Glad it spoke to you 🙂
I’ve been greatly impressed/influenced by the “message” in this lady’s life!! A DVD of this should be a colector’s item! How can I purchase a DVD? I’ve sent it to many friends only to learn that it had been “pulled”. How sad!
rmc
Hi Robert,
Did you try the link in the article (http://www.nickreedent.com/) ? There is a pre-order link there.
Let me know if that works as that is what I intend to use!
Cheers,
Gil
Alice,
Thank you for your musical tribute to life itself.
Thank you, and your friends, for your shining examples of courage under fire.
Thank you for your beautiful smile and the encouragement it gives.
Your philosophy is a wonderful gift to one and all.
Happy birthday , Alice.