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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, TN (Jan. 18, 2012) — Dr. Kellie Brown, chair of the Milligan College music department, will present her research on orchestras in concentration camps at Virginia Intermont College in Bristol, Va., on Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. in the Harrison-Jones Auditorium. The event, which is hosted by VI’s International Affairs Club in partnership with the congregation Beth Shalom, commemorates the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.
Brown’s lecture, titled “Alma Rosé and the Women’s Orchestra at Auschwitz: Lessons for Our Students on Tolerance and the Triumph of the Human Spirit,” focuses on Alma Rosé, a woman whose music brought a glimpse of beauty and hope to hundreds of Auschwitz prisoners and even saved the lives of some of the musicians. The lecture is open to the public and free of charge.
Alma Rosé was the niece of the composer Gustav Mahler and the daughter of renowned violinist Arnold Rosé who founded the Rosé String Quartet. Alma was a successful violinist with a charmed life, but all that changed in 1938 when the Nazis took control of Austria, her homeland. Alma’s Jewish heritage made her a Nazi target, and she was eventually arrested and sent to Auschwitz in July 1943.
Despite all of the horrors associated with Auschwitz, Alma soon discovered the camp’s orchestra. Her fame and her family’s reputation made Alma the ideal candidate to conduct the women’s orchestra, which was, at the time, a mere rag-tag of women prisoners. Alma’s arrival ignited the orchestra’s success and respect, and it quickly grew to 50 members. Not only did orchestra members find hope through the music, but their value among the SS guards gave Alma the leverage to insist members were treated with decency. In this way, Alma was able to save these women’s lives through music.
Brown’s interest in this topic was a long time in the making. Sparked by a novel about a Jewish violinist living in WWII Germany, Brown quickly became interested in the lives of famous musicians during the Holocaust. After watching the movie, “Playing for Time,” which tells the story of the women’s orchestra in Auschwitz, Brown began her research on the life of Alma Rosé.
Brown serves as director of the strings program and conductor of the Milligan College Orchestra. She is a frequent clinician and performer, and serves as the assistant conductor of the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra and assistant concertmaster for the Symphony of the Mountains.
In addition, she has written numerous compositions, arrangements and articles. In 2005 her first book, “An Annotated Bibliography of Musical Fiction,” was published by Edwin Mellen Press. Brown has studied at Furman University, East Tennessee State University and Appalachian State University and holds a bachelor’s degree in music education, a master’s degree in violin performance, and a doctoral degree in higher education administration, with an emphasis in music administration.