Alice Sommer Herz at 106: Everything Is a Present

Documentary which celebrates the extraordinary life of distinguished pianist and Holocaust survivor Alice Sommer Herz.

In the concentration camps where she was imprisoned she played more than 100 concerts, and credits music for saving her life during this horrific experience. At the age of 104 she gained international fame after a book based on her life, A Garden of Eden in Hell, became a bestseller, and was also the star of prize-winning film We Want the Light.

Now aged 106, she is the second oldest person in London and continues to practice piano every day. In this film from when she was 98, in conversation with Christopher Nuphen, she speaks in her quiet and appealing way, even when she is describing shocking events, and she plays Schubert, Smetana and Beethoven in a style which the world has long forgotten. It is the style of Artur Schnabel, who was one of her teachers, a style redolent of a happier and more confident time in music making and one which many will find heartwarming.