Seymour Strauss was a staunch supporter of the
Lyric Chamber Orchestra at Highland Beach.
By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley
Dr. Seymour R. Strauss, a staunch supporter of the Lyric Chamber Orchestra at Highland Beach, is being honored at the first concert of its 10th year on Jan. 27.
Strauss died July 7 at age 94.
“Seymour helped me from the onset with fundraising,” says Ruth Stevens, a professional violist who, in 2001, had an “epiphany” to start an orchestra. Today she is chairman of the board and the principal violist.
Strauss got involved in the orchestra through his wife, Dorothy, a violinist who played with the LCOHB until she was 90 years old.
Stevens had known Dorothy Strauss since 1975 when, for three years, they played together in the Lyric String Quartet in New York. But they hadn’t seen each other for 20 years. During that time they’d each bought homes in Florida.
They became reacquainted when they both happened to take a music class at the Harid Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton.
After that, Dorothy joined Stevens in organizing the orchestra, which met at the Mae Volen Senior Center. And she got her husband involved.
“The center was noisy and not really a good place for classical music. We needed a better place to rehearse,” Dorothy says in a telephone interview from her son’s home in Ocean Side, N.Y.
And her husband had a better idea.
Although Strauss was Jewish, he had gone to school at Loyola University and had a “special relationship” with the Catholic Church and Father Gerald Grace of St. Lucy’s in Highland Beach.
As a result, Strauss was instrumental in the orchestra’s move into the church from the senior center. Today the 23-member orchestra performs “in the round” at the church hall.
“My husband felt it was important to have music as part of the community,” Dorothy says.
The musical program in Dr. Strauss’s honor will be a combination of light classical and pop music. “Seymour liked the lighter stuff,” says Stevens, who remembers Strauss fondly.
“When you’ve known someone for so long, it’s difficult to accept they are gone. I see him in my mind, hear him in my ear. He was a joy to work with,” she says.
He even bought the chairs that the affiliated string quartet uses when they play at the Highland Beach Library. And each year he sent out letters requesting contributions for the all-volunteer orchestra made up of retired professional musicians.
Sheila Golden of Boynton Beach, who does public relations for the orchestra, remembers Strauss as the man who would “stand at the door of the church and greet you as you took your seat for a performance.”
You also may have seen him outside Town Hall wearing a T-shirt touting the orchestra as he distributed fliers announcing an upcoming performance. And he always wore his signature black or white beret with pins attached.
His daughter Barbara Strauss Neuerman of Glencoe, Ill., says her father wore a beret since he was 14 years old. “He wore it to his bar mitzvah,” she says. The attached pins were a reminder that this man had received a Purple Heart and Bronze Star in Gen. George Patton’s Third Army.
Seymour Strauss spent years in the military and was decorated for his actions.
A candidate for Highland Beach mayor at the time, Bernard Featherman met Strauss in March of this year at the town polling place. Strauss was circulating a petition to have the city help fund the orchestra.
“He came up to me and wished me luck in my run for mayor,” says Featherman, who won that election.
It was the beginning of a relationship that would allow the mayor to interact with Strauss at commission meetings.
“He was a straight-up person who said what was on his mind. He had a mission to help the orchestra, and he was very committed to it. I thought that was outstanding. He did a lot of wonderful things,” Featherman says.
The Highland Beach Library has been the beneficiary of some of his largesse. Over a five-year period, he gave the library five sculptures that he created from stone and bronze at his workshop in the Boca Highlands condominium.
“I knew right where to put his works. I have a good eye,” says Library Director Mari Suarez.
Fatiguee (1999), a bronze of a resting ballet dancer, graces the library’s front desk. The other sculptures are displayed in a sunny and airy reading room overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway.
Suarez remembers Strauss’ regular visits to the library when he’d drop by her office.
“He was full of ideas. I miss his presence,” she says.
If you go
On Jan. 27, the Lyric Chamber Orchestra at Highland Beach will celebrate its 10th year and honor Dr. Seymour R. Strauss with a concert featuring flutist Marilyn Maingart.
On March 30, the orchestra will perform with soloists soprano Josephine Dolce and baritone Paul Golden.
Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. at St. Lucy’s Catholic Church, 3510 S. Ocean Blvd., Highland Beach, with light refreshments to follow.
Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the door. To reserve a seat, email info@lcohb.org. For information about the orchestra, go to http://lcohb.org/index.html.
On March 14, the string quartet that is affiliated with the LCOHB will give a free concert at 5:30 p.m. at the Highland Beach Library, 3618 S. Ocean Beach Blvd.
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