Music and Memories

Clara Rockmore
THEREMIN

The excerpt from accompanying booklet:

The extraordinary artistry of (my aunt) Clara Rockmore is well documented. Her incredible technical
mastery of the theremin, linked to impeccable musicianship, is displayed on CDs on the Delos, Bridge
and Roméo labels. There's a wonderful video derived by Robert Moog from a telecast on the celebrated
Camera Three Series, which I recall watching Sunday mornings, and there are all sorts of unauthorized,
but no less fascinating postings on YouTube. That said, there are still wildly frustrating gaps in the
remarkable range of Clara's concert activity. Apparently, her performances of Bloch's "Schelomo" with
the Philadelphia Orchestra and Toronto Symphony were never recorded, nor was the Nardini Concerto she
played at New York's Town Hall with her equally distinguished sister (a.k.a. my Mother), pianist Nadia
Reisenberg. In the pre-cell phone era, nobody documented her playing during her three coast-to-coast
tours with Paul Robeson. Clara's live performances on Dave Garroway's TV show may be sitting in some
dusty archive, and while we do have a tape of her joking with Fred Allen and playing on his comedy
hour, I can't get clearance from NBC to share it with you. We have home movies (silent, alas!) of Clara
playing with a string quartet at the Untermyer Gardens in Yonkers, and her collection of scores
included spirituals and other pieces set for theremin and voices that she evidently performed with the
Hall Johnson Choir.

Robert Sherman
December, 2019