Meet the 2008-09 Arts Council
Sydney Rose Abend '54
Commercial property owner/manager
Arts-related experience, talents, or interests:
Opera, ballet, theater.
Recent great art-attending experience:
As You Like It at Spingold; chamber music concert in Waitsfield, Vermont.
If you could meet any artist, who would you choose?
Itzhak Perlman.
Favorite musicians and/or composers:
Verdi, Tzaikovsky, Brahms.
Why do you believe that the arts are essential to students' experience at Brandeis?
To enrich the lives of all our students in ways they might not be looking into on their own.
Barbara Binder '76
Lawyer and commissioner, Rhode Island State Ethics Commission
Arts interests:
Member of a 100-year-old club in Providence devoted to promoting decorative arts.
Recent great art-attending experience:
The Getty Museum.
If you could meet any artist, who would you choose?
I would have loved to have heard Miles Davis perform.
Favorite actor:
Meryl Streep.
Fern Lowenfels '59
High school and college teacher
Arts interests:
I collect prints and selected antiques. My son is an art and antique dealer.
Why do you believe that the arts are essential to students' experience at Brandeis?
It helps to ensure more human and more caring and more sensitive people--hopefully.
Betsy Sarason Pfau '74
Retired, high-tech sales rep; homemaker
Arts interests:
I am an art collector and I sing in the Newton Community Chorus. I regularly attend theater and served for 11 years on the Rose Art Museum Board of Overseers.
If you could meet any artist, who would you choose?
Margot Fonteyn or Beverly Sills.
Favorite work of art:
Renoir’s "The Bather"; many from Renaissance through today.
Favorite actors or playwrights:
Daniel Day-Lewis, Tom Stoppard, Tennessee Williams.
What was your involvement in the arts as an undergraduate?
I graduated magna cum laude with departmental honors in Theater Arts.
Recent art-attending experience:
I sang parts one and two of the “Messiah” on March 2, looked at great art in Vienna in February, and saw November and August: Osage County in New York in February.
Harvey Ross '67
Investment counselor
If you could meet any artist, who would you choose?
Leonardo da Vinci.
Favorite visual artists:
George Grosz, Louis Lozowick.
Favorite plays:
Death of a Salesman, Les Miserables, The Grapes of Wrath.
Favorite musician and composer:
Buddy Holly and Mozart.
What are your hopes for this new Arts Council?
Collegial interplay to learn from others’ views on the impact and viability of the arts at Brandeis.
Why do you believe that the arts are essential to students' experience at Brandeis?
Gateway to openness and receptivity, to new ideas and diversity. Helps to engage and combine feelings with ideas influencing perception. Brings out and engages emotions, intellect, and creativity.
Mindy Schneider '75
Author and hospital executive
Favorite visual artist:
Louise Nevelson.
What are your hopes for this new Arts Council?
That we are able to support and encourage exciting new activities in the arts.
Jolie Schwab '78
Retired entertainment/ arts lawyer; currently an oil painter
Arts interests:
Painter and theatergoer, special interest in contemporary arts.
Recent art-attending experience:
So many. August: Osage County, visiting artists' studios.
If you could meet any artist, who would you choose?
Cezanne.
Favorite visual artists:
Monet, Cezanne, Lucien Freud.
Favorite actors:
Meryl Streep, Mercedes Ruehl, Kevin Kline.
Favorite playwrights:
Tom Stoppard, Sam Shepard
Favorite musician:
Bruce Springstein.
What are your hopes for this new Arts Council?
That it can open up new vistas for students.
Why do you believe that the arts are essential to students' experience at Brandeis?
It is life (or at least gives meaning and texture to it).
Carla Singer '72
Executive producer (television)
Arts interests:
Theater arts
Recent art-attending experience:
Teresa Rebeck's The Scene! Lucia di Lammermoor at the Metropolitan Opera.
If you could meet any artist, who would you choose?
Daniel Barenboim.
Favorite visual artists:
I collect contemporary photography and prints: Cartier-Bresson, Hockney, etc.
What was your involvement in the arts as an undergraduate?
I majored in Fine Arts (painting) and loved set design and theater.