Mira J. Spektor (November 8, 1928 – November 28, 2021) was a German-born American composer, poet, and music director. She was the founder of the Atlantic Opera Singers and the Aviva Players.

Biography

Spektor was born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 1928 and her parents were Lithuanians that escaped the

pogroms A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century attacks on Jews i ...

. The three of them moved out of Berlin to Paris shortly before

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

started, where Spektor went to school until the summer of 1939 when the family moved to the United States on the . She wrote her first musical while she was in high school and also sang in it. Spektor attended

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, United States. Founded as a Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in 1926, Sarah Lawrence College has been coeducational ...

Mannes School of Music The Mannes School of Music (), originally called the David Mannes Music School and later the Mannes Music School, Mannes College of Music, the Chatham Square Music School, and Mannes College: The New School for Music, is a music conservatory in T ...

, and

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

, later performing in

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

plays and recording songs for LPs and CDs. The Atlantic Opera Singers was started by Spektor and lasted for 10 years. In 1975, Spektor started The Aviva Players, a chamber music group that performed music by women composers starting from the 12th century. Record labels that released her music include Original Cast Records and

Airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

. She wrote a feminist musical titled ''The Housewives' Cantata'', which had a playbook published in 1994 by Georgina Press. She also wrote a collection of poems titled ''The Road to November''. Her music has been played in films and television shows.

References

1928 births 2021 deaths Sarah Lawrence College alumni Jewish American composers Jewish American poets Musicians from Berlin Writers from Berlin Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent 20th-century American composers 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers Mannes School of Music alumni Juilliard School alumni 21st-century American composers 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American women composers 21st-century American women composers 21st-century American Jews {{US-composer-20thC-stub