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26 Spring 2024 • sai-national.org 26 Spring 2024 • sai-national.org The Mozart House in St. Gilgen on Lake Wolfgang is a forty-minute drive from Salzburg, Austria. It's open June through September, 10 am to 4pm, and closed on Mondays. Although I visited off-season, Director Maximilian Passan kindly opened the building on a Monday morning in January. e cultural center is located at Ischler Strasse 15. It has links to three relatives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Magistrate Wolfgang Nikolaus Pertl, his maternal grandfather, lived and worked in the former county court. Here, his mother, Anna Maria, was born on Christmas Day 1720, and his sister, Nannerl, lived in the residence for 17 years aer her marriage to the widowed magistrate Johann Baptist von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg. He was a successor to her grandfather's post. e Mozarts in St. Gilgen, a 27-minute documentary (available in English, German, Italian, and Japanese) served as a good introduction to the family's connection in town. A painted time line on a long hallway puts important Mozart dates in historical context. e museum's permanent exhibition is small, but engaging. e region's damp climate requires most items — except for a few displayed in glass cases — to be copies rather than originals. Among these are a copy Mozart's Life (1793), the first biography of Wolfgang, a 1792 manuscript written by Nannerl addressing questions about the book, and her manuscript score of one of her brother's concertos. A children's corner had a miniature wooden carriage and books about Mozart appropriate for young readers. In one room, Passan and I put our heads in life-sized cutout figures decorated with 18th-century costumes for a perfect photo opportunity. e museum also has a small gi shop. e building is a venue used by various-sized groups for weddings, seminars, workshops, dinners, and concerts. I loved the ambiance and hope to return to this charming spot to hear a performance outside in the garden, but not in mid-winter! Jayne I. Hanlin is an initiate of Alpha Omicron and current member of the St. Louis Alumnae chapter. Mrs. Hanlin, the sister of famed pianist Malcolm Frager, is the co-author of Learning Latin Through Mythology (Cambridge University Press, 1991). A Wld of Music The Mozarts in St. Gilgen, Austria Nannerl Mozart's Nannerl Mozart's handwritten transcription handwritten transcription of Mozart's of Mozart's Concerto in Es Major Concerto in Es Major K 271 K 271

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