Marion Rubin Berman Piano Honors Concert: Liszt & Post-1940

This year's Marion Rubin Berman Piano Honors Concert will feature piano competition winners presenting études by Liszt and those written after 1940. The students performing this evening were chosen through the annual NEC Piano Honors Competition.

About the Series:

n celebration of the life of Marion Rubin Berman ’31 (known by her friends as “Mitzi”), her two children, Dr. Harris A. Berman and Phyllis E. Berman, and her daughter-in-law Ruth Nemzoff, have chosen to honor her memory by sponsoring NEC’s Honors Piano Competition and Concert. Music, and piano in particular, was the driving force in Mitzi’s life. Although she married shortly after graduating New England Conservatory at age 19, she continued her piano career by teaching—first in Lawrence, Massachusetts where, according to family legend, young Lenny Bernstein was a pupil in the synagogue children’s choir she led. In 1937, Mitzi and her husband, Frederick P. Berman, moved to Concord, New Hampshire, where she was reunited with her NEC friend Angela Annichiarico ’32. Together they played duo piano for community events for years—Broadway Musical shows, Concord Music Club concerts, and many community programs. They were both leading piano teachers in Concord for years.

Angela tragically died at a young age in a house fire, a terrible loss for Concord, her family and for Mitzi, who continued to be active in the musical life of Concord for over 65 years, inspiring young people and new generations of piano teachers. Although she died at the age of 92 in 2004, she would have been very proud to be honored here tonight at the school that shaped her career.

NEC is grateful for the generous support of Dr. Harris A. Berman, Ruth Nemzoff, and Phyllis E. Berman in sponsoring the Annual Piano Honors Competition and Concert.