OUR STORIES.

Our concert at the Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum is titled after one of the works on the program, May Their Memory Be a Blessing by Benjamin Rouder.

The phrase “May Their Memory Be a Blessing” is deeply rooted in Jewish culture, but has recently become available to everyone. Sharrona Pearl says “It comforts the mourners and honors the memory of those they mourn. It is an active statement that people offer to one another, wishing something for the dead while at the same time acknowledging and maybe easing the pain of the living….This phrase now transcends religious, racial, and ethnic lines.” [read more here]

Katherine klick hotle

Our concert program features music of those lost and music that has deep roots in Jewish culture, but also vibrantly celebrates living composers and the today that we are all living in.

As I was building up the story behind this program, as well as figuring out how to market it, I rather impulsively used a favorite image of my paternal grandmother, Katherine Klick Hotle, on our event listing.

KKH, as she signed all of her work, has long been a source of inspiration for me as person, an artists and a musician. Just a few years ago I discovered that she was the business manager for the Women’s Glee Club of Elmhurst College (now University), organizing and preforming in the Sextet that toured Midwest. I was flabbergasted that I have unknowingly walked in her footsteps as a concert producer!

She had a Masters Degree in Science (in the 1939!!) She painted in oils and watercolor. She was an incredible potter, making wildly quirky hand builds with eclectic glazes. She wasn’t a very good cook but she genuinely tried. She lead with kindness and had a cackling laugh that we all adored. So her high school graduation photo is gracing our event page for this concert, because her memory is most certainly a blessing.

From here I flung this idea out to my fellow musicians. “Share your family photos! Tell your story!”

This month we will share our stories with you, both of those we miss and those who are vibrantly still shining their light on us. Stay Tuned.

-Dana Hotle

KKH at elmhurst college, on left. i love this photo. i feel like it captures her fire!

“The Elms” 1938 Women’s glee club. kkh is bottom photo. far right.