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Shirley Gerber, 84
Accomplished pianist held fund-raising concerts
Shirley Gerber, 84, of Albuquerque, N.M., and Truro, died in Albuquerque Feb. 11 from complications of congestive heart failure. She was the wife and music partner for 65 years of Morris Gerber.
Mrs. Gerber was born in Brooklyn on July 27, 1922. She was trained as a pianist, but after her marriage to Morris Gerber she devoted herself to keeping house and raising their two children, Leslie and Kenneth.
When Leslie and Kenneth were old enough to be in school, Mrs. Gerber went to college and got a B.A. and a master's in education, and became a kindergarten teacher in the Brooklyn public schools. She continued to play the piano only at home.
In 1960 a friend asked her to join him in a public broadcast performance of Barber's Cello Sonata, given at the Donnell Library in New York and broadcast over WNYC. After that she resumed serious piano study, first with Joseph Wolman and later with Paula Hondias (a long-time Provincetown summer resident). She became a teacher and coach at Chamber Music Associates at the 92nd Street Y in New York.
The Gerbers built a home in North Truro, and they were visited by many musician friends from New York and from the Cape. In the early 1970s the couple started a series of informal home concerts, which they called the Outer Cape Chamber Music Society, with all admission fees donated to the local library. These concerts continued for two decades, often involving Mrs. Gerber’s favorite two-piano partner, Barbara Keller.
In 2006, the town of Provincetown purchased a grand piano for Town Hall from Mrs. Gerber and her son Leslie, one of two grand pianos the Gerbers kept in their Truro home.
In 1992 the Gerbers moved their main residence to Albuquerque, and Mrs. Gerber soon became active with the University of New Mexico Opera Dept. as an accompanist and vocal coach. There she worked with numerous students who went on to professional singing careers. She also performed in chamber concerts there until 2005, when increasing health problems forced her to give up public performances.
She is survived by her husband, Morris; her sons, Leslie and Kenneth; and her brother and sister-in-law, Leonard and Arlette Felberg of Albuquerque.
A musical memorial will be held in Albuquerque in April.
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Arthur G. Jones, 90
Mary I. Roggermoser, 86
Kelley Lynn Strong, 46
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Mar 1st, 2007