PREMIERE
The Two Pianos concert documentary and companion exhibit premiered Saturday 9 June 2018 in Philadelphia.
The Settlement Music School where Anna taught and performed hosted the event. The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH) furnished early exhibit support, featured Two Pianos as a special Member Event, and gave exhibit items temporary shelter. Directors of NMAJH and the Settlement School welcomed the audience.
Live Two Pianos readings were based on first-person interviews with Anna and Halina. Anna’s daughter and son-in-law Nora Jean and Michael Levin narrated with Halina’s grandson Kenneth Hoffman, who also contributed to the curated exhibit. Russian-born piano duo Stanislava Varshavski and Diana Shapiro performed the roles of Anna and Halina as well as program music showcasing works played by them under and after the Nazis. The premiere closed with a 1992 video of Anna, age 84, playing Mozart at a Settlement School chamber music program for seniors started in 1988 by Anna's daughter Tania Bieler Haftel (1933-2017). The original sequence was recorded by Tania's daughter Stephanie.