Celebrate in Ernest
Every year the Ernest Bloch Legacy Committee presents a commemorative program as part of its effort to preserve the legacy of the acclaimed Swiss-American composer, who spent his twilight years in Agate Beach.
This year’s program, held at Newport’s Pacific Maritime Heritage Center this Sunday, July 14, will include a performance of a Bloch cello piece alongside informative talks.
Charmaine Leclair will perform “Suite No. 1 for Solo Cello,” which Bloch composed three years before his death, while living on the Oregon Coast. Leclair recently retired to Newport, where several of her relatives have lived for generations. She received her PhD in music history and cello performance from the University of Oregon and was appointed as a core member of the cello section of the Newport Symphony in April 2024
Dr. Frank Jo Maitland Geltner will share some excerpts from Dr. David Z. Kushner’s “Ernest Bloch Companion,” the primary source book for those interested in Bloch. He will also read excerpts from “The Ernest Bloch I Knew” by Helen Johnston Kintner, who served as Bloch’s personal secretary for the last decade of his life; and “Creative Spirit,” by the composer’s daughter Suzanne Bloch, who served for more than four decades on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music.
Dr. Alexander Knapp will join the event by Zoom to share his insights into Bloch’s musical composition.
Knapp, a freelance musicologist, composer and pianist, has lectured extensively on the subject of Jewish music, and especially the work of Bloch, since the 1960s. He contributed substantially to a volume titled “Ernest Bloch Studies” that he co-edited for Cambridge University Press. He will also be sharing news from the International Ernest Bloch Society.
The Lincoln County Historical Society will distribute copies of the Ernest Bloch Booklet during this program. An ongoing Ernest Bloch exhibit is on display in the society’s Burrows House Museum.
Sunday’s event begins at 2 pm at the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center, located at 333 SE Bay Blvd. in Newport. For more information, go to oregoncoasthistory.org or call 541-265-7509.