Alice Frisca

Alice Frisca
Alice Frisca, from a 1921 publication.
Background information
Born	Alice Mayer (1900-03-07)March 7, 1900 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	January 24, 1960(1960-01-24) (aged 59) Puerto Rico
Occupation	Pianist
Years active	1920s
Spouse	Ralph Kirsch ​ (m. 1922)​

Alice Frisca, born Alice Mayer (March 7, 1900 – January 24, 1960), was an American pianist.

Alice Mayer was born in San Francisco,¹ the daughter of Benjamin Mayer and Eva Mayer. Her stage name was a reference to the city of her birth. In 1920, she won the MacDowell Prize from the California Federation of Music Clubs.² She was a student of Pierre Douillet,³ Clarence Eddy, and Leopold Godowsky.⁴

She made her Paris debut in 1920,⁵ and was awarded a medal for a concert she gave in 1921 in Paris, a benefit for French and Belgian artists in need after World War I.⁶ "She has a conspicuously neat and fluent technique," noted critic Alfred Kalisch, writing in The Musical Times of her London debut in 1921, "and a touch of no little charm."⁷ Her New York debut a few months later drew similar critical appreciation,⁸ though the New-York Tribune said that "Miss Frisca evidently mistakes force for brilliance," and said that she "more nearly resembled a noisy amateur than a professional pianist."⁹

Alice Frisca married businessman Ralph Kirsch in San Francisco on December 28, 1922;¹⁰ she subsequently retired from her performing career.¹¹ Her husband's nephew, Harold C. Schonberg, was the Pulitzer Prize-winning chief music critic at The New York Times from 1960 to 1980; he cited her as his first piano teacher and an important early influence on his understanding of music.¹² Alice Mayer Kirsch died of a heart attack in 1960 while accompanying her husband on a trip to Puerto Rico.¹³