A tribute to composer Ursula Mamlok
Ursula Mamlok—Movements, a cinematic portrait of the composer Ursula Mamlok, by Anne Berrini.
For Ursula Mamlok, music was the meaning of her life: composing offered her solace at a time when the world was collapsing around her.Born to a Jewish family in Berlin in 1923, Mamlok was a precocious, talented teenager with a single dream: becoming a composer. Then Germany descended into Nazi oppression, and by the time Mamlok was 16, she and her parents made a last-minute escape to Ecuador. Dissatisfied with her new home's lack of musical perspective, the teenager wrote letters to musicians abroad, one of which gained her a scholarship to the Mannes School of Music in New York City. Thus, as a 17-year-old she came to New York, alone, with no money, unable to speak English and ready to embark on a career that was both trailblazing and successful.Mamlok would remain in New York City for the next 66 years, soaking up inspiration from some of the most important European musicians who were living in exile, as well as from composers from the American avant-garde. She taught composition at the Manhattan School of Music for almost 40 years, and her award-winning works became part of the city’s concert life.In 2006, at age 83, Ursula Mamlok returned to Berlin, the city of her birth: a decision that presented her with new challenges, both musical and emotional.In her documentary Ursula Mamlok—Movements, filmmaker Anne Berrini offers a sensitive examination of Mamlok's life, and of the music that played such a central part in it. Berrini observes the composer at work in Germany and accompanies her on a trip to New York City, where Mamlok prepares for a League of Composers concert, meets old friends and revisits a critically important period of her life.Director: Anne BerriniGermany 2014HD, 80 min.German with English subtitles
