Death of renowned violin teacher and benefactor
mainEx-students have reported the death of the much-loved Alice Schoenfeld, who donated $10-million gift to the USC Thornton School of Music is in memory of her cellist sister Eleonore Schoenfeld. She also founded a strings competition in Harbin, China.
Alice, an accomplished violinist, studied in Berlin with a Joachim pupil and made her Berlin Philharmonic debut aged 10.
A kind and lovely person — as you say, one of the last close links to the authentic Joachim tradition (through Karl Klingler) — just three steps away from Beethoven’s colleague Joseph Boehm. Mrs. Schoenfeld was a wonderful artist and a force of nature. RIP
She wrote a fascinating account of her escape from Nazism. It’s available here (you can read certain pages free): https://www.amazon.com/Ungvar-Beverly-Hills-Neuman-Schoenfeld/dp/1937650227
Violinist Alice Schoenfeld survived the war, but she merely shared a name with the author who is an entirely different person. Watch the book launch at 09:30 and you’ll see: https://youtu.be/tRJt7prKnsE