“It’s really a crowning achievement that she survived World War I,” said Dr. Diana Mittler-Battipaglia, daughter of Regina Mittler, who celebrated her 101st birthday on February 2 in her Forest Hills apartment.
Born in what was then the Austrian Empire in 1910, her mother, a timpanist and violinist and her father, a conductor, left Regina in the care of a nanny until war broke out throughout Europe. Between the years 1914 and 1918, her mother was unable to return to their home in Czernowitz, Austria. When they reunited, though severely malnourished, she was unaffected by the outbreak of influenza and moved to Vienna where she began her love affair with the piano, winning a full scholarship to the Vienna Conservatory at 13 years old. After her graduation, Regina was a staff accompanist at the conservatory while teaching private piano lessons. Life was quiet and enjoyable for her until one day in March, 1938.
One day after the Nazis annexed Austria, Regina received a phone call from her mother while giving a piano lesson that the Gestapo had come looking for her due to her involvement with the Social Democratic Party at a summer youth camp. She would spend the next year hiding in friends’ basements and other locations.
“She managed to keep on going, no matter what was in her way,” said Diana, the executive director of the Con Brio Ensemble and music professor at Lehman College. “She had a strong will and intellect.”
Years earlier in 1925, she was asked if she would like immigrate to America while walking past the American Embassy and she gladly filled out an application. After her friends found her immigration number, Regina’s visa was approved on February 2, 1939 and she set sail to New York, leaving behind her mother and stepfather. Unfortunately, all attempts to bring Regina’s mother to the U.S. were fruitless and impossible after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. She received a one-line telegram from Vienna after the conclusion of the war that read about her mother and stepfather’s deportation to Izbica where they were killed by the Nazi’s.
Regina had settled in Kew Gardens where she lived with her husband, Franz Mittler, a fellow Austrian refugee and accomplished composer, and dedicated herself to the music education of their only daughter, Diana, as well as establishing her own piano teaching practice. After retiring in 1990, she devoted her time to reading, travelling the city and listening to music.
Today, Regina requires 24-hours a day home attendant care due to spinal stenosis and an arthritic foot condition that has made walking increasing painful. Her hands can no long play symphonies but she has a warm touch and an endless smile. She still loves music and spends most of her time with her caretaker, Rina Soldevilla at her apartment in Forest Hills. She has no intentions of leaving Queens, the place she has called home since 1939.
“My mother was always an individualist. Strong opinions and very independent,” said Diana. “She did it her way, just like Frank Sinatra.”
