Dear Bonnie and family

I did not feel comfortable to the lovely memorial event by contributing over Zoom, but here's is what I would like to say:  Anne was a brilliant pianist and an adventurous performer of modern and contemporary music as well as her favorite classical composers, such as her favorite, Brahms.  She was also a dedicated and deeply caring piano instructor at Simon's Rock who taught the whole student, but was demanding in her musical expectations.  Finally, she was a stimulating and generous colleague from whom I learned and benefitted during her tenure at Simon's Rock.  Her greatest gifts to me were performances of my music:  in all she performed four of my works.  She premiered as set of piano pieces entitled "So Much Depends Upon Distance" which I wrote in 1999, and I have her recording.  She not only played it at Simon's Rock, but also in Putney Vermont and at Haverford College in Pennsylvania.  She and PeterZay performed by cello-and-piano work "Touchpiece" at a recital at Simon's Rock, and more recently my "Scherzo" for solo piano.  Incredibly, after she moved to Boston, I sent her set of fifteen piano inventions I had just composed.  She zeroed in on the most atonal one, which was also the most challenging.  She practiced it for a month and then sent me a video of herself playing it in her Boston studio.  

In addition to demonstrating her belief in me by playing my compositions, we collaborated on a program of music for piano duet entirely composed in the 20th century.  This was a very challenging program in view of the diversity of musical languages and rhythmic challenges.  My memory of the rehearsals is that they were completely collegial.  Although Anne was a more experienced and completely professional performer, we worked as equals (I was afraid she might be a bit bossy, but that was totally unfounded).  We performed works by Schoenberg, Nancarrow, Schulhoff, Hindemith, and others.  Working with her on this program was like a dream come true for me:  great and uncompromising music in partnership with a consummate and dedicated professional who was a master of the most complex modern idioms.

The final memory I will share here is a program performed in 2005 to help inaugurate the new concert grand at the new Simon's Rock Arts Center.  Anne had been the first to play once this piano was delivered to the stage of the not-quite-completed building the previous May.  I organized a program by four Berkshire pianists, three associated with the college:  Anne, myself, Hilda Shapiro, and Gili Melamed-Lev.  We each chose our own repertory:  Gili played Bach and Brahms, Hilda played Schubert, I played Copland, and Anne played … Franghiz Ali-Zadeh!  It was a beautiful gesture embodying her conviction that new and unfamiliar music could take its place alongside Bach, Schubert, Brahms, and Copland.  She came on-stage with a score and a beaded necklace, which she proceeded to lay carefully on the middle-register strings of the piano.  As she played, the beads gently rattled, producing a sound resembling the strumming of an oud.  It brought the audience and the whole occasion to a whole new level of experience and wonder. To the extent that I had intended this program as a showcase for the excellence of Simon's Rock, my hopes were in this way wildly fulfilled.  

One last way in which Anne supported me:  I have been writing concert reviews that are posted on-line at culture web-sites (most recently "The Berkshire Edge."). Anne has been on my "reviews" mailing list.  Every time I posted a review, I got a lovely email from her--sometimes she reflected on the music I was writing about, sometimes she told me about music she had heard at a concert in Boston (always expressing gratitude for the opportunity), and sometimes she just talked about her life.  She even incorporated her emphatic style of speaking about things that mattered to her by using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS!  In this way I continued to feel close to her, even though I did not have a chance to see. her in person once she moved away from the Berkshires.

Anne brought incredible class and integrity to her students, to the school, and to the community.  I was greatly honored to be counted as her colleague.  My condolences go out to you and your family.  Surely having as a mother such a remarkable human being who was also  a distinguished human being will be a source of pride and consolation as she dwells in your memory.