Alice Frisca
Alice Frisca, born Alice Mayer, was an American pianist.
Early life
Alice Mayer was born in San Francisco, the daughter of Benjamin Mayer and Eva Mayer. Her stage name was a reference to the city of her birth. In 1920, she won the MacDowell Prize from the California Federation of Music Clubs. She was a student of Pierre Douillet, Clarence Eddy, and Leopold Godowsky.
Career
She made her Paris debut in 1920, and was awarded a medal for a concert she gave in 1921 in Paris, a benefit for French and Belgian artists in need after World War I. "She has a conspicuously neat and fluent technique," noted critic Alfred Kalisch, writing in The Musical Times of her London debut in 1921, "and a touch of no little charm." Her New York debut a few months later drew similar critical appreciation, though the New-York Tribune said that "Miss Frisca evidently mistakes force for brilliance," and said that she "more nearly resembled a noisy amateur than a professional pianist."
Personal life
Alice Frisca married businessman Ralph Kirsch in San Francisco on December 28, 1922; she subsequently retired from her performing career. Her husband's nephew, Harold C. Schonberg, was the Pulitzer Prize-winning chief music critic at The [New York Times] from 1960 to 1980; he cited her as his first piano teacher and an important early influence on his understanding of music. Alice Mayer Kirsch died of a heart attack in 1960 while accompanying her husband on a trip to Puerto Rico.