Alice Ehlers

Alice Pulay (or Pulai) was born in Vienna, the daughter of Ignaz Pulay and Karoline Pulay. Her family was Jewish. She studied piano with Theodor Leschetizky, music theory with Arnold Schoenberg, and harpsichord with Wanda Landowska in Berlin.Palmer, Larry. [https://www.smu.edu/-/media/Images/News/PDFs/Gustav-Leonhardt-profile-by-Larry-Palmer.pdf "Harpsichord Playing in America After Landowska"] The Diapason (June 2011): 19-20.

Ehlers was considered a skilled interpreter of baroque music, especially the works of Bach.{{Cite news |last=Egan |first=Patricia |date=February 8, 1939 |title=Alice Ehlers, Brilliant Harpsichordist, Renders Compositions of Early Artists |pages=1–2 |work=The Vassar Miscellany News |url=https://news.hrvh.org/veridian/?a=d&d=vcmisc19390208-01.2.4&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN------- |via=Hudson River Valley Heritage: Historical Newspapers}}{{Cite news |date=1942-07-14 |title=Unique Music Event Hailed |pages=5 |work=The Pomona Progress Bulletin |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pomona-progress-bulletin-unique-musi/128454901/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} Despite the difficulties of touring with a harpsichord,{{Cite news |date=1938-11-27 |title=Alice Ehlers, Harpsichordist, To Play at Mills College |pages=19 |work=Oakland Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune-alice-ehlers-harpsichor/128455127/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} she toured in Palestine, Russia, and South America; she moved to England in 1933, and then to the United States in 1938, to escape Nazi Germany.{{Cite book |last=Crawford |first=Dorothy L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lkh9K7tSMsEC&dq=Alice+Ehlers&pg=PA58 |title=A Windfall of Musicians: Hitler's Emigres and Exiles in Southern California |date=2009-06-23 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-15548-8 |pages=57–59 |language=en}} She appeared in the 1939 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, in which she plays "an acerbic rendition" of Mozart's Rondo alla Turca on a double-manual harpsichord during a party scene.{{Cite web |title=Alice Ehlers (Harpsichord) - Short Biography |url=https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Ehlers-Alice.htm |access-date=2023-07-18 |website=Bach Cantatas Website}} She made a number of recordings on the Decca label in 1939.{{Cite web |title=Alice Ehlers |url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/313738/Ehlers_Alice |access-date=2023-07-18 |website=Discography of American Historical Recordings}}

Beginning in 1941, Ehlers was a professor of harpsichord at the University of Southern California.{{Cite web |last=Boekelheide |first=Alex |date=2005-02-09 |title=Making Way for Beautiful Music |url=https://news.usc.edu/23801/Making-Way-for-Beautiful-Music/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |website=USC News |language=en-US}} She founded the Southern California Junior Bach Festival. Malcolm Hamilton, Marilyn Horne, Michael Tilson Thomas, Carol Neblett, and Roger Wagner were among her students.{{Cite news |last=Hughes |first=Allen |date=1974-04-13 |title=Malcolm Hamilton Excels In a Harpsichord Recital |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/04/13/archives/malcolm-hamilton-excels-in-a-harpsichord-recital.html |access-date=2023-07-18 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last=Galbraith |first=Jane |date=1981-03-09 |title=Teacher Gave New Life to Old Instrument |pages=28 |work=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-teacher-gave-new-l/128457078/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 1954, she was appointed the Walker-Ames Lecturer in Music at the University of Washington.{{Cite news |date=1954-04-09 |title=Alice Ehlers Honored; Soprano Wins Award |pages=9 |work=Los Angeles Evening Citizen News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-citizen-news-alice-e/128454534/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 1961, she was named the Brittingham Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin.{{Cite news |date=1961-08-31 |title=Alice Ehlers Named Brittingham Professor |pages=23 |work=Wisconsin State Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/wisconsin-state-journal-alice-ehlers-nam/128454690/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1962-01-03 |title=Harpsichord Artist Schedules Talks with Piano Teachers |pages=15 |work=Wisconsin State Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/wisconsin-state-journal-harpsichord-arti/128456391/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |via=Newspapers.com}}

She performed in concerts and recitals into her eighties.{{Cite news |date=1945-11-25 |title=Alice Ehlers Next Symphony Guest |pages=49 |work=The Salt Lake Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-salt-lake-tribune-alice-ehlers-next/128453901/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 1948 and 1949, she performed with Frieda Belinfante and Virginia Majewski in Los Angeles.{{Citation |title=Ancient music on ancient instruments (concert program) |date=1948-07-25 |url=https://calisphere.org/item/5475acca76357b24f50df4409fb713a9/ |work=Califsphere |access-date=2023-07-18 }}{{Cite news |date=1949-07-17 |title=Antique Instrument Ensemble to Play |pages=95 |work=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-antique-instrument/128454165/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 1952 she gave recitals with violinist Alex Murray.{{Cite news |date=1952-12-07 |title=Pair Will Appear in Three Recitals |pages=120 |work=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-pair-will-appear-i/128454371/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} She toured in the American midwest in 1957.{{Cite news |date=1957-01-27 |title=Miss Ehlers to Substitute on Program |pages=93 |work=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-miss-ehlers-to-sub/128455691/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} She gave concerts of baroque music with violist Eva Heinitz in 1949{{Cite news |date=1949-11-14 |title=Ancient Instruments to Feature in Concert |pages=15 |work=The Province |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-province-ancient-instruments-to-feat/128456060/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |via=Newspapers.com}} and 1961.{{Cite news |date=1961-12-03 |title=Two to Play Baroque Music |pages=44 |work=Wisconsin State Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/wisconsin-state-journal-two-to-play-baro/128455824/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Ehlers was a friend and correspondent of Albert Schweitzer.{{Cite book |last1=Schweitzer |first1=Albert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=baI-qX3773IC&q=Alice+Ehlers |title=Albert Schweitzer and Alice Ehlers: A Friendship in Letters |last2=Bergel |first2=Kurt |date=1991 |publisher=University Press of America |isbn=978-0-8191-8327-9 |language=en}} She gave benefit performances to raise funds for Schweitzer's medical work in Africa.{{Cite web |last=Ivry |first=Benjamin |date=2011-05-04 |title='Dear Little Sister Cembalo,' the Viennese Harpsichordist Alice Ehlers |url=https://forward.com/schmooze/137468/dear-little-sister-cembalo-the-viennese-harpsichor/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |website=The Forward |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=1943-03-30 |title=Capacity Throng Will Hear Symphony's Schweitzer Hospital Fund Concert |pages=5 |work=The Pomona Progress Bulletin |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pomona-progress-bulletin-capacity-th/128459400/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Ehlers married Alfred Walter Georg Ehlers in Berlin in 1910; they had two daughters, Maria and Christina, and later divorced. Ehlers died in 1981, in Redondo Beach, California, at the age of 93. Her grandson, environmentalist Peter M. Douglas, traced some of his worldview to Ehlers's reverence for life and pacifism.{{Cite book |last=Osborne |first=Thomas J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EnQ5DwAAQBAJ&dq=Alice+Ehlers&pg=PA8 |title=Coastal Sage: Peter Douglas and the Fight to Save California's Shore |date=2018 |publisher=Univ of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-28308-4 |pages=8, 142 |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Woo |first=Elaine |date=April 4, 2012 |title=Peter M. Douglas dies at 69; California Coastal Commission chief |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-xpm-2012-apr-04-la-me-peter-douglas-20120404-story.html}} Recordings and transcripts of interviews she gave in 1965 and 1966 are held in special collections at UCLA.Tusler, Adelaide G. [https://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/catalog/21198-zz0008ztd0 "Interview of Alice Ehlers"] UCLA Library, Center for Oral History Research.

Some of her letters from Albert Schweitzer were donated to Chapman University.{{Cite web |title=Collection: Albert Schweitzer, Alice Ehlers letters, 1928-1988 {{!}} ArchivesSpace Public Interface |url=https://chapman.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/3/resources/57 |access-date=2023-07-18 |website=Chapman University Libraries}} They were translated and published in 1991.{{Cite book |last1=Schweitzer |first1=Albert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=baI-qX3773IC&q=Alice+Ehlers |title=Albert Schweitzer and Alice Ehlers: A Friendship in Letters |last2=Bergel |first2=Kurt |date=1991 |publisher=University Press of America |isbn=978-0-8191-8327-9 |language=en}} In 1997, a stage adaptation of her letters with Albert Schweitzer was produced at Chapman University.{{Cite news |date=1997-09-10 |title=Sunday Theater |pages=337 |work=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-sunday-theater/128456526/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |via=Newspapers.com}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDB name|0013987}}
• A 1939 recording of Ehlers playing a Loeillet gigue, on Internet Archive
• [https://www.google.com/search?channel=fenc&client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Alice+Ehlers#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:39b5133d,vid:YalBM1joFuM A recording of Ehlers playing Mozart's "Rondo alla Turca"] in 1939, on YouTube

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ehlers, Alice}}

Category:1887 births

Category:1981 deaths

Category:Musicians from Vienna

Category:Austrian harpsichordists

Category:Women harpsichordists

Category:American harpsichordists

Category:University of Southern California faculty