Met musicians mourn their house pianist
RIPNews has been shared of the death of the pianist Cecilia Brauer, older sister of the Met’s veteran concertmaster Raymond Gniewek, who died two weeks ago.
Cecilia, who joined the Met in 1972, was in her 90s.
She was an enthusiastic performer of Benjamin Franklin’s invention, the glass harmonica.
I met Cecilia on the LIRR one night after Moses & Aaron. She said she didn’t usually talk to opera goers, but since I had a program to Moses & Aaron, she would talk to me.
She told me all about her glass harmonica, while we were on a stalled train. She was a close friend of Stanley Drucker. Very nice woman.
You mean Moses und Aron – Schönberg would never have allowed a title with 13 letters.
Cecilia was so much more than a pianist for the Met. She was an associate member of the orchestra for 43 years playing the Celeste for many operas. She also introduced the glass Armonica to the Met when they performed Lucia de Lammermoor using the Armonica during the mad scene. It was the first time the piece had been performed that way in over 80 years and the first time at the Met. It was an incredible achievement for a woman who self taught herself the instrument at age 70!