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Today is Clara Rockmore's Birthday. I've thought and written about her so much I find myself at a loss for words this year. For me Clara is more than an areal finger-ist. She inspires me as a musician and as a progressive humanist. In her life I know she faced big challenges and discomforts and still made great art and held fast to her ethics, and I am inspired by that.

Do you have any sense of influence or inspiration from Clara Rockmore?

Happy Birthday Clara!

TheremWorld member Fred Mundell has posted extensively about theremin engineering in our forums.

Lately Fred's been furthering World Thereminization by getting his knowledge out to the general public with a comprehensive document "Understanding and Calibrating a Theremin" which is a detailed introduction to how theremins work and expert guide to actually making one play. It is currently available on his element14 blog .

Great work Fred, Thanks!

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Sometimes our work as musicians intersects with works of humanitarianism much greater than our normal sphere of rehearsal and performances.

Ruth Katherina Martha Pfau was born in 1929 in Leipzig, Germany and grew up during the horrors of the second world war. After studying medicine during the 1950's Ruth joined the order of the 'Daughters of the Heart of Mary' and was sent by the order to work in India. In 1960, while awaiting a visa in Karachi, Ruth visited the McLeod Leper Colony, little more than a beggar's camp at the time, deciding to stay to serve the leprosy patients and her great work began.

In less than five years, Sister Ruth established the Leprosy Control Program and working with a Pakistani dermatologist initiated training programs for local medical workers. In 1979, she was appointed Federal Adviser on Leprosy to the Government of Pakistan and by 1996, leprosy had been controlled in the country and Dr. Ruth Pfau's work was assisting leprosy and public health initiatives across the word.

During March 2010, the German and Pakistani governments are celebrating Dr. Ruth Pfau's work in Karachi. March 6 - 9 Theremin player Carolina Eyck and her music ensemble from Berlin will be performing at the German Consulate and three of the schools where Ruth worked and founded.

Carolina tours almost constantly, this Pakistan trip however is considered by her and her musicians (Peter Schmidt - lead-guitar, Axel Merseburger – guitar, Roman Eyck – bass, Jan Bilk – keyboards, leader) to be the most important concert series they have presented.

More information will be available at Carolina's site and the Goethe-Institute in Pakistan.

Kevin is going to be one of the featured concert performers at The Pocono Skies electronic music festival produced by electro-music.

May 15 and 16, 2010
Shawnee Playhouse
Shawnee-on-Delaware, Pennsylvania

photo Peter Schaaf

Composer and thereminst Elizabeth Brown will be performing her work "Rural Electrification" for theremin, voice, recorded sound and video, on February 26 at 7:30 pm at the Art League of New Britain, CT.

It's a beautiful blend of voice and theremin, and echos Lev Termen's Russian electrification tours with the story of electricity coming to rural America. Nicely written.

Elizabeth will also be teaching a workshop on February 27, 2 pm at the Art League.

Thereminst Eri will be performing at the AMUSE MUSEUM, which houses a collection of classical art of Japan. It promises lots of theremin in this collaborative production.

photo Paul Friedlander

Some of the world's most amazing robo-sound-artists were gathered together for London’s Kinetica Art Fair.

Featured performer is the Robotic Theremin Ensemble (three robots and one human). The Fair runs through Sunday Feb. 14 at the Ambika P3.

Dutch Thereminist Thorwald Jorgensen has hit quite a stride with his 2009-2010 concert tours. Spanning styles and venues, Thorwald will be performing intimate classics in the Cultureel Cafe Bacchus in Aalsmeer (near Amsterdam), and as soloist with a wind orchestra at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, famous for it"s splendid acoustics.


The Symphonic Wind Orchestra ATH grew out of the immense popularity of wind orchestras in the Netherlands. They introduce new soloists across the country in commissioned arrangements of orchestral classics and will be featuring Thorwald in concerts this year.

Welcome to ThereminWorld Thorwald,
and Viva World Thereminization!