My mother Saralee Halprin began playing the piano at age four, later winning scholarships to the Longey School of Music and the Julliard School. At 21 she was the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra pianist. She came to California where she met my father Leahn Halprin, a Yuba City farmer and artist. We lived at the farm and at our Santa Monica home where my sister April and I first heard Mom play Schumann’s Romance in F Sharp Major. April says she felt cradled by Mom playing the Schumann Romance. My sister is right; any moment I hear Schumann on the radio, I feel my mama’s arms around me.
