IN MEMORIAM – Channa Andriesse Seidenberg
/July 20, 1939 – March 14, 2020
Channa Seidenberg
The Board of the Lyre Association of North America wishes to remember our dear friend and LANA Board colleague, Channa Seidenberg on the first anniversary of her passing.
Channa was introduced to the lyre in 1971, and in 1982, she was among the group of five founding members of the Association for Promoting the Lyre as a New Instrument (APLANI), which led to the establishment of the Lyre Association of North America in 1991. Channa played a decisive role in the development of the lyre work in North America, and she served continuously on our Association board for 37 years until the time of her passing in March.
As an active member of LANA, Channa helped to plan and organize conferences with a focus on teaching youth as well as building networks among lyre builders. She taught lyre students from all around the globe, and in her later years, she traveled to China to lead workshops on the lyre, singing, and listening. Her networking skills proved invaluable in supporting the creation and development of the international lyre community over the last 20 years.
Channa promoted and taught the lyre to adults and children for over three decades. She developed a two-handed approach to the 7-string pentatonic lyre and created a pedagogical path of lyre development for children. One of her areas of specialty with the chromatic lyre was the mirrored or planetary scales. She delighted in introducing these unique scales to adults using a phenomenological approach through listening.
Channa’s great gift as a lyrist was her ability to improvise. She both composed and improvised for many plays as well as for fairy tale and puppet performances, and she worked extensively on the development of lyre music for the sequence of Raphael Madonna paintings, improvised out of her study of the circle of fifths and the accompanying eurythmy gestures and presented during every Advent and Holy Nights’ season.
Channa was one of the founding members of the Resonare Foundation Course in Music out of Anthroposophy, where for 12 years, she led singing, lyre, improvisation, and dedicated listening sessions with the musical intervals. Channa’s professional training was in voice, and she was a teacher of the Werbeck School for Uncovering the Voice for over three decades. She was a prolific composer who penned volumes of beloved rounds and choral pieces as well as instrumental and incidental music for many occasions, including festivals and in celebration of personal milestones, such as christenings and weddings. In addition, she was a teacher of the Werbeck-based therapeutic singing work, and she also trained and practiced as an anthroposophic music therapist.
Again and again, Channa’s biography demonstrates her strength and resiliency – in the death of her father at the hand of Nazis, in her “adoption” by a Christian family in Holland during World War II, in the testing of her Orthodox Jewish background, in her recognition of anthroposophy, and in her care of those with developmental differences as her life’s path as well as through her life-long passion for music. Channa knew that the traditional path she was born into was not her individual path, and she searched for her teachers with resolve. If she was convinced that someone was a teacher who could help her along her path, she didn’t let “no” dissuade her.
Music was the soul of Channa’s life in singing, playing, composing, directing, and music therapy. When the “red threads” of her life – music and anthroposophy – joined together, Channa recognized her work, and her devotion to her path was consuming. She was the creator and director of the Camphill Village Ensemble in Copake, NY, which played in many venues, including Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and she collaborated over the years with many renowned musicians. After her return to Copake in 2017 following her leg injury in China, she remained actively engaged in the Camphill life rhythms, contributing to the social aspect of the community through leading singing and continuing to teach lyre and offer music therapeutically.
After three separate struggles with cancer, Channa passed on March 14, 2020, joining her husband Leon, who died in 2005, and her half-brother Jonathan, who died in 2018. In addition to her colleagues in the international lyre community, Channa leaves behind much-loved sons Andreas and Julian, their families, and two sisters, one in New York and the other in Israel.