Pamela Roberts shares about her studies and friendship with the remarkable cellist and humanitarian, Eva Heinitz

Pamela Roberts

I studied cello and gamba with Eva Heinitz in the 1970s at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. I became a student at the UW from 1975-80, having transferred from the University of Puget Sound (UPS) in Tacoma as a junior. I had previously been given a full scholarship to attend UPS (full tuition and all my living expenses), but I risked the change of schools because the draw to study with Eva was strong. I knew that her level of musicianship was far beyond the norm and I wanted to experience that challenge in my music.

Previous to that time, when I was about 14 years old (1969), I was studying privately with Vivian King at Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) in Tacoma, Washington when Eva's and my path crossed. Gabor Rejto came up from the University of Southern California to give a cello master class at PLU - Vivian King was one of his former students. I played for Rejto and Eva attended the master class with one of her star pupils - this was the first time that Eva heard me play. I didn't see her again until I was 20 years old when I auditioned to enter the UW - and I am sure that she did not remember me from the master class six years before.

Eva Heinitz

So the day came in 1975 when I drove up to the UW from Tacoma to play for Eva and for the other music professors - an audition for admittance to the UW School of Music. I played a very complicated baroque solo that was full of detailed ornamentation and technical challenges. It was a highly challenging musical piece with piano accompaniment. The choice of music surprised Eva and the other teachers because it was in Eva's area of expertise and they thought it was pretty bold of me to attempt to play it for her. Some sarcastic comments were made between them before I started to play, which did not phase me in the least since I was very well prepared. In fact, I thought their negative comments were funny at the time.

When I was done, Eva was flabbergasted with the quality of my performance and said so. For her at that moment, I was a talent who had "come out of nowhere," which created a dilemma because she already had a top student who was a senior the year I entered the UW.  After hearing me play, Eva knew that I should sit "first chair" but she wanted to honor the position of her senior student, so she worked it out by having us be "co-principals." I was given a full scholarship for five years while I studied for my cello performance degree and Masters in Music.The Brechemin Family Foundation was the primary source of my support during these years of study.

Pamela Roberts

Eva and I enjoyed our weekly lessons together, immersing ourselves in the music with gusto. But it wasn't too long before real life reared its head. A student who I had known before I came to the UW and who had transferred to the school at around the same time as myself took her life and was found dead in her dorm room. She was African-American and a lovely, sensitive girl. Eva mentioned the death to me and pointed to the front page article in the UW school newspaper. I knew nothing about this, so when I saw the girl's photo in the article I gasped and immediately started sobbing. I remember Eva saying, "How are you going to make it in this world when you care so much and are so sensitive?" After that, Eva was quite frank and open with me about more personal things that I don't think she shared much with most of her other students. This was a turning point in our relationship.

Dr. Stanley Chapple

This was during the Dr. Stanley Chapple "era" at the UW, when the faculty was comprised primarily of European musicians who had fled Europe during WWII. Even though Stanley Chapple was no longer the official director of the school of music, the professors who were there had mostly been recruited during his reign. They were all exacting musicians, who lived and breathed music during every waking hour of their lives. In fact, one of my favorite memories was playing the Elgar Cello Concerto under Stanley Chapple's baton. To prepare for the performance I practiced many times privately with Sir Stanley with him playing the entire orchestral score on the piano. You have never heard such remarkable musicianship than him playing each instrument of the orchestra on piano - it was a magical time for me.

Eva Heinitz

I studied with Eva weekly and devoted myself to the cello repertoire. These lessons were the light of my life and we had so much fun together. We always went over the time we were supposed to have, so she scheduled me at the end of her teaching days so that other students wouldn't be impacted.

Eva had many stories to tell about her flight from Germany, how she went to Paris, London and eventually to the United States and how many other musicians helped her along the way to protect her. She told one hilarious story about practicing in a flat when she was a refugee, when she was constantly harassed by her neighbors about making noise. She had to choose her practice times carefully so as not to bother anyone. She felt criticized and unprotected. She had next to nothing in the way of furniture - just an open flat with hardwood floors. One day, a cockroach came out of the wall and started to move towards her while she played. When she stopped, it stopped. When she played, it continued to move towards her. She said, "Everyone's a music critic - even the cockroach." These were the types of things that kept her amused while she waited for the opportunity to again become an active musician and to perform publicly.

I remember that Eva would tell me that, "There are Nazis everywhere." As a young woman, I thought that she was a bit paranoid when she would say this. Later I married a Jewish man and with more age and experience I realized that she wasn't exaggerating. I believe that Eva's father was Jewish, her mother was not - thus Eva would say that she was about half Jewish - 51% in fact. Her sense of humor was pervasive and she thought metaphorically as a rule. She was a highly intelligent person - in fact, a real genius - and this came out strongly through her remarkable sense of humor.

Eva Heinitz

Eva talked to me a lot about sexism and how she had to fight her way through as a female cellist. She basically ran away from home when she was 15 years old in Germany to play professionally. This was against her parent's wishes. She was a headstrong character who knew what she wanted at a very young age. She challenged the European musicians and conductors who were sexist and who would not place her in the first chair position in orchestras because she was a female. She was immersed in the musical life of Berlin and spoke about performing with all the greats of that time - especially Furtwangler with whom she played the Bach "Passion" as solo gambist. (I had the opportunity to play that gamba solo once in a church performance in Seattle and had the good fortune to have Eva coach me beforehand.)

Eva was briefly married in her early twenties. I believe that she divorced after a very short period and never remarried. Later, when her name was featured in the Who's Who in America, it was mentioned in the text that she had been married and it even stated the name of the man in the entry. Eva was livid when she found out that this had been included in the text about her life and her professional contributions. She felt that it sent a message to the world that her contributions in music were worth nothing unless she had a man in her life. She showed the book to me one day and we laughed together about how ridiculous this was.

When  Eva eventually found the love of her life, her Goffriller cello, and was preparing to purchase it, there were wealthy benefactors around her, who could have helped her procure the instrument, but who would not lift a finger to help. She said that she threw all modesty aside and begged everyone she knew to help her buy the cello and she succeeded primarily because her less wealthy friends all pitched in. These were life lessons that Eva was teaching me. She was not as a rule fond of wealthy people - she found them as a group to be selfish. She described playing for a wealthy woman once, who refused to allow Eva to eat anything during the time in which Eva was in her home playing for a private party. Eva had been playing for so long that she was getting faint for lack of nourishment. She went into the kitchen to find anything that she could to eat and ended up finding some sugar cubes in a cupboard and she ate them so that she could finish the performance. These types of stories were told to me to help prepare me for the working world of music so that I would not be deterred from performing under tough circumstances.

Eva Heinitz

Scholarship Fund. You can give to the Eva Heinitz Scholarship Fund at Indiana University, which was established in 1994 by her contribution of her beloved Goffriller cello to the school where her good friend and colleague, Janos Starker, taught. Because of her great respect for Professor Starker and his teaching, Ms. Heinitz expressed her desire that a scholarship fund be established from the proceeds of the sale of the cello. "I am not that interested in money," she explained. "In fact, I hate it. But I am interested in what money can do, and I want to help young cellists. I've had a full, rich life and achieved almost everything I wanted. Now it's time for this wonderful instrument to go on." 

(I had the honor of playing the Chopin Sonata for cello and piano for Janos Starker once during a master class at the UW - he paid me the biggest compliment when I finished, saying "What am I supposed to say? Sometimes all I can do is admire." Of course, he then went on to give me constructive criticism!)

Eva announced her retirement from the UW to me during a private lesson - this was before my degree was completed. I broke down crying and she was beside herself. She said that I was the only student who "gave a damn" that she was retiring. I told her how disappointed I was and that I had no interest in studying with anyone but her. She agreed to let me study privately with her as long as I didn't tell anyone because she didn't want to undermine Toby Saks as the new cello teacher at the UW.

And so began my new experience with Eva as I took two lessons each week, one with Eva on the weekend and one with Toby during the week over the span of several years. I learned so much from both of them. I eventually started to also study gamba with Eva  and was privileged to play concerts with her and Peter Hallock, harpsichordist at St. Marks Cathedral in Seattle. Eva always kept me laughing, with her terrific sense of humor. She would say things like, "Why do they play it so slowly? You have to take a bus from one note to the next!" Or, "Elgar's music - it's like a big piece of English toffee - thick and sticky and it lasts forever." She always said that her students might not be the best technical cello players, "but they have good taste." I studied with Eva during the whole "back to the earth" era of the Vietnam War. Most of us young women did not wear much makeup during those times. Eva would mention that I looked "tired" when I would come to my lessons without any makeup on, but if I put on a little rouge before my lesson, she always would say how "rested" I looked - this got to be a little game for me.

Pamela Roberts

Eva dyed her hair black when she was working at the UW and told me that she felt she had to because there were those who wanted to get rid of her because of her age. After she retired, she let her hair grow out white and she looked lovely. She loved to garden and always complained that it was "bad for her back, but good for her soul." She kept a large collection of indoor plants in her front room where she played and they helped create a beautiful space for her music. Eva complained that "people have so little imagination" and that because she was able to imagine the potential of her tiny house, she was able to purchase it inexpensively and then have the whole front end of the house opened up to create her "great room" for music making. Her front yard looked out on Lake Washington, where mama ducks would bring their babies to her each year and she would put out a shallow tub of water in the yard for them to swim circles around in. This gave her no end of entertainment in the summer months.

I came from a poor family, with no real background in music. My father was a diesel mechanic - he was Blackfeet Indian and had grown up on an Indian reservation in Red Mesa, Colorado and my mother was a housewife, who had come out of abject poverty in Appalachia. However, my mother loved classical music and she and my father were supportive of my wish to perform as a cellist. Referring to this background one day, Eva said, "You can never predict where talent will come from." Eva was sensitive to my financial situation and always generous with me about paying for lessons and such - she wanted to teach me and we were always able to negotiate a price that I could afford.

I became a "helper" to Eva at the same time as I performed for fifteen years as a professional cellist in Seattle and elsewhere. I used to drive her on errands - always at 10 am because she knew that was the time of day when the highways were least congested. She was a tremendous influence on my life and my music. She devoted her entire life to music and I was fortunate to be involved and immersed in that with her for many years.

Eva was a real task master, but if one wanted to play professionally, there was no other experience that would challenge you more than studying with Eva. I practiced regularly about 7 hours a day and yet once when I was preparing to play the Dvorak concerto with an orchestra, Eva heard me play the beginning of the slow movement and she shouted, "This is not a kindergarten!" I was hurt and started to tear up, and she ran into the kitchen to get cookies and tea to make it up to me! Despite all these dramas, however, I received a standing ovation for the performance and learned so much from her in the process - especially about the finesse of the use of the bow and phrasing. Eva hated it when string players "sawed their bows back and forth" - she said it was like they were trying to cut a log or something. She was a stickler for finesse with the bow and that each stroke was planned out carefully - some were full strokes, others were a half or quarter stroke of the bow - depending on the phrasing of the music.

Eva was a musician's musician. It's not only that she was exacting, but her music was outside of this world. Her musical understanding took us into a realm that most of us never touch. The expression was sublime. The pathos of it could make you breathless. If a musician was unsure of themselves then she was not the one to go to. She was as high a level musician as you could study with and if you wanted to get into her sphere then you had to be prepared for the energy that came with it. Her sarcastic sense of humor was hilarious, but I can certainly understand how it must have felt to be the target of that humor when Eva was not pleased with something. One could say that she did not suffer fools gladly. She spoke in a manner that captured the essence of her point with humor. This made it memorable.

Part of Eva's musical gift came from her early piano training. She had a firm harmonic sense that guided her melodic playing as a string musician. The sensitive and thoughtful use of her bow was legendary. She heard everything in the orchestra, piano parts, the ensemble. It was a "whole" that came together and she was attuned to every detail of the music. Her music created a 4th dimension - it was ethereal. For those students who could understand her, it was the greatest gift imaginable. 

I last saw Eva in 1984 when I took her out to lunch for her to see my newborn daughter. She was obviously jealous, which was just like Eva. Her passion for the music came above everything and I know she was upset that I had gone out, gotten married and now had a baby and that that had just ruined everything! It was so funny to see her reactions, but at the same time I so appreciate who she was - she was the real thing in a highly dedicated musician. It was all about the music.

I was later injured in a car wreck and had to stop playing cello because of my injuries. I became a public school teacher and a master, working with diverse learners and at-risk youth. I became a principal in Seattle and then a faculty member with Washington State University assigned to work with youth and families in Jefferson County on the Olympic Peninsula. Within the context of my work for WSU I became an accomplished filmaker and website designer. After retiring from WSU I became the Director of Education at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock, Washington. I am still a highly dedicated person in my profession and those life skills that I learned under Eva's guidance continue to benefit me and our world, but just in a different way than through music.

Eva will always be a special part of my life. As it is now 2018 and I am fully retired, I am hoping to give it another try on the instrument just for fun - I also want to continue to teach some students on cello because I want the legacy of Eva's teaching and her musicianship to be passed on to the next generation of musicians.

Update: It's October 2018 and after 6 months of physical therapy I am playing my cello again! I wish Eva was here to see this.  I'll write updates as things proceed, but it looks like I'll be performing recitals again after 35 years away from my cello. I am 63 years old and starting another adventure - stay tuned!

Pamela Roberts
pamelaroberts1@gmail.com
360-765-0124

https://archive.org/details/pacifica_radio_archives-AZ1762

http://www.interlude.hk/front/forgotten-cellists-xiv-eva-heinitz/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Heinitz

http://www.orpheon.org/OldSite/Documents/evaheinitz.htm

http://www.cello.org/heaven/bios/heinitz.htm

http://www.cello.org/Newsletter/Articles/heinitz.htm

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20010402&slug=obit02m

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Viola-Gamba-Heinitz/dp/B005F153QK

http://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/cgi-bin/vassar?a=d&d=miscellany19480317-01.2.7#

https://csoarchives.wordpress.com/tag/eva-heinitz/

http://staff.washington.edu/noreen/viol/focusviol.shtml

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/22/classified/paid-notice-deaths-heinitz-eva.html

http://www2.kuow.org/program.php?id=22729

https://www.discogs.com/artist/3065283-Eva-Heinitz

https://wikivividly.com/wiki/Eva_Heinitz 

https://academic.oup.com/mq/article-abstract/XL/1/136/1203058?redirectedFrom=fulltext

https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/27880 

http://honkingduck.com/discography/artist/eva_heinitz_viola_da_gamba_j._fournier_violin_g._figueroa_viola_p._fournier_cello_ 

http://music.indiana.edu/giving/scholarships/scholarships-heinitz.shtml 

http://data.bnf.fr/fr/14186281/eva_heinitz/

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https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/heinitz-eva-cellistin-1930foto-umbo-dephot-news-photo/541033753#/heinitz-eva-cellistin-1930foto-umbo-dephot-picture-id541033753

https://www.geni.com/people/Eva-Heinitz/6000000039389522584

https://books.google.com/books?id=Nx9WDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT310&lpg=PT310&dq=EVA+HEINITZ&source=bl&ots=vnnzbA_5nH&sig=CrbA3j9yJaim1wcwT5EUUg7VgsE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-5922867bAhUSOH0KHZb8ALI4HhDoAQgyMAM#v=onepage&q=EVA%20HEINITZ&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=WVTSGoGfmuMC&pg=PA318&lpg=PA318&dq=EVA+HEINITZ&source=bl&ots=qmY39Lu_Ei&sig=fZSbApJOJ2bZAvlJhsg9vQN0MrM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-5922867bAhUSOH0KHZb8ALI4HhDoAQg1MAQ#v=onepage&q=EVA%20HEINITZ&f=false

https://www.jstor.org/stable/739715?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

https://www.gva.be/cnt/oid102455/archief-eva-heinitz-grande-dame-du-violoncelle-overleden

https://www.nytimes.com/1939/01/30/archives/classical-music-by-new-friends-stradivarius-group-feature-two.html

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https://www.gso.se/goteborgs-symfoniker/arkiv/?soloistId=5201

https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/34268

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http://www.realmac.info/muses.htm

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https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/16/maria-lidka

Sister's obituary
http://www.tayvaughan.com/people/weil.html

http://www.namenfinden.de/s/eva+heinitz








Background image by Lyonel Feininger, German-American Expressionist painter. Feininger was one of Eva's favorite artists - in fact she had some of his original paintings on the walls of her living room.