Two days after the first anniversary of her death, Mollie Hershman’s longtime dream came true: Norwood High School’s music program received a harp.
Just before she died of cancer last year, Hershman, 87, announced she wanted to obtain a harp for the music program and establish a fund for student lessons. Her three children, all products of the school music program, carried out her request.
In the fall, with $4,000 donated after Hershman’s death, her daughters, Judi Hershman of Foxborough and Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin of Watertown, bought a black lever harp decorated with Celtic designs for the music program.
Last Thursday, the sisters presented the instrument during the school system’s annual classic instrument concert.
“For me, personally, it was very emotional,” said Judi Hershman. “It was very bittersweet in that my mom wasn’t there, but she was there.”
Hershman-Tcherepnin, a professional musician, said, “I thought it was everything it could possibly be. It was fabulous. I was so moved by everything.’’
In a ceremony during intermission, the sisters presented the harp to Paul Alberta, a family friend and the director of fine arts for the Norwood school system. Alberta met Mollie Hershman and her husband, Max, in 1963. Mollie Hershman once worked as Alberta’s part-time secretary.
The harp “will obviously add another dimension to our program, another level to the sound of our orchestra,” said Alberta, who has spent his 39-year career as an educator in Norwood and plans to retire in June. “It was very meaningful for me, personally.”
Thursday’s concert included about 270 student musicians, Alberta said. It was a chance for the eighth-grade concert band and middle school orchestra, as well as those in the high school symphony band, orchestra, and wind ensemble, to perform in front of an audience in preparation for an evaluation concert next month by a state music educator’s group. Norwood’s chorale groups performed at a similar concert March 19.
In addition to the presentation, the sisters (their brother, Joel, who lives in New York, was unable to attend) arranged for a harp performance. Sarah Clarke, a 16-year-old harpist from Sudbury, played two solo pieces and then joined Hershman-Tcherepnin (who played flute) for two duets.
When they heard Clarke play, Norwood’s students “were absolutely speechless,” said Hershman-Tcherepnin. “They were so excited. The students were hovering around Sarah and the harp wanting to know all about it.”
Alberta said he expects harp lessons to get underway next fall.
Music always was a big part of the Hershman household. Max Hershman, a local optometrist for over 40 years, joined a jazz band in college and played classical piano music in the family’s Norwood home. He died at age 75 in 1990.
The three Hershman children took piano lessons and played in the school bands and orchestras, and Hershman-Tcherepnin has made a career out of music. She has performed with the Boston Pops and Boston Symphony Orchestra, helped found the Boston Pro Arts Chamber Orchestra, and is acting director of Dinosaur Annex, a new music ensemble.
But it was a sparsely attended town concert that inspired Mollie Hershman to become active in Norwood’s music programs. After taking her son, Joel, to a concert with an audience of about 20, Hershman wrote a letter to the local newspaper complaining about the lack of support for music. She was contacted by the president of the parents music group at the time, who recruited her to visit the superintendent of schools to push for a better music program.
Mollie Hershman reorganized the band parents group into the Norwood Parents Music Association, which was revamped in the early 1960s. Judi Hershman said her mother also spoke at Parent-Teacher Association meetings to rally support, and went from school to school herself to collect students’ lesson money. Later, she organized student field trips to youth concerts at Symphony Hall.
“She just gave so much to the music department,” Judi Hershman said. “She was always behind the scenes doing things. It was just really nice to do something for her at this event.”
Source: Boston Globe, March 28, 2002