“John Gfroerer, a documentary filmmaker based in Concord, has brought New Hampshire’s stories to the screen for years,” writes Nick Stoico in Friday’s (8/2) Concord Monitor (N.H.). “His next film … dives into the life and work of composer and pianist Amy Beach. Born in West Henniker [New Hampshire] in 1867 as Amy Marcy Cheney … At the age of 17, she played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Eleven years later, the orchestra performed her Gaelic Symphony…. The film, In the Key of Green: The Genius of Amy Beach, is set to be finished in the fall of 2020. A longtime admirer of music and Beach’s work, Gfroerer is collaborating with Virginia Eskin, a renowned solo pianist and adjunct professor of music at Keene State.… Gfroerer said Eskin brought up the idea to make a film about Beach…. Beach’s story is told through interviews with Eskin and other experts…. ‘I was stunned by the amount of music she had composed,’ Eskin says in the film’s trailer… Beach married a prominent Boston doctor when she was 18. But Dr. Harrison H.A. Beach did not want Amy to be a concert pianist. He encouraged her to compose.”
Posted August 6, 2019
