Story Summary:
Florika Remetier was a 6 year old prodigy violinist. She played with the BBC Orchestra in London and toured with the Baltimore Symphony and the Boston Symphony Orchestras. She appeared on radio and TV as a young violinist. She suffered a mental breakdown as an adolescent that prematurely ended her promising musical career. When she grew up she moved to California and became interested in the Women's Liberation movement. She joined the New York Radical Women (NYRW) and she co-founded the feminist guerrilla theater group W.I.T.C.H.
Florika Remetier: Child Prodigy & Women’s Rights Activist
Florika Remetier was born on February 28, 1946 in a displaced persons camp in Romania. Her parents were Marcel Remetier, a musician and linguist, and Theodora Feiga. They met in the Soviet Ukraine, where they had both been deported in 1940. After returning to Romania in 1946, they moved between several refugee camps in Germany and Italy.
In 1951, when the Remetier family was in the Italian refugee camp, Florika began playing the violin and the piano- at 4 years of age. Florika’s talent was noticed by Maestro Giulio Bignani who spoke to her parents and arranged for Florika to enter the Santa Cecelia Academy in Rome where she studied music. When Florika was 6 years old, she performed in five concerts in Germany and Italy and was highly praised by Italian music authorities.
As a result of the efforts of the United Service for New Americans as well as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Remetier’s were able to move out of Bremerhaven, Germany on January 29, 1952, to the United States. The family boarded the General W.G. Haan transport ship on March 1952 and they arrived to New York City.
When Florika was still a child, she was offered a full scholarship by the Hartt College of Music, where she studied the violin under Raphael Bronstein. The Remetier’s decided to relocate to Hartford, Connecticut so Florika could be closer to the College. Florika was given special permission by the Hartford Board of Education to attend elementary school in the mornings only, in order to enable Florika to take afternoon classes at Hartt College. In 1954, at the tender age of 8 years old, Florika performed with the Hartt Symphony Orchestra.
When Florika was 12 years old, she returned to Europe in 1958 to study violin at the Paris Conservatoire with Nadia Boulanger. In 1959, Florika made her London debut with the BBC Orchestra playing a number of her own compositions. In 1960 Florika began to study with Ricardo Odnoposoff in Vienna while continuing to study with Boulanger. She played in concerts throughout England and the United States, and toured with the Baltimore Symphony and Boston Symphony Orchestras.
Florika appeared on several radio and television shows during her early years, usually as a violinist. She played a duet with Sam Levenson on the show Two for the Money. She also appeared on television in the United Kingdom, including on Val Parnell's Startime in 1959. On February 27, 1960, 14-year-old Florika appeared as a violinist on ATV's Saturday Night Spectacular with Jack Parnell, Petula Clark and Guy Mitchell.
Florika suffered a significant mental breakdown during her adolescence which ended her prosperous musical career. In the early 1970s she moved to San Francisco, California. It was around this time that Florika became interested in the Women’s Liberation movement. She joined a band called New Haven Women's Liberation Rock Band as was the bass player. She performed alongside another bassist, a guitarist, and a drummer. Florika tutored the other less experienced band members.
Florika became a member of the New York Radical Women (NYRW). She participated in the 1968 Miss America protest alongside Florynce Kennedy. Florika and fellow NYRW member, Bonnie Allen were symbolically chained to a large "Miss America" puppet in a red, white and blue bathing suit. The chains represented those "that tie us to these beauty standards against our will". The NYRW also participated in protests against the Vietnam War. To this end, Florika and a male partner created and distributed anti-war leaflets that featured parody advertisements, including superimposing an injured Vietnamese girl onto an advertisement for female beauty products.
It was October 1968 and Florika became inspired by the outrageous acts of the Yippies. As a result, Florika and other members of the NYRW co-founded the feminist guerrilla theater group known as the "Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell", abbreviated as "W.I.T.C.H.", in New York City.
The founders of this group included Robin Morgan, Peggy Dobbins, Judy Duffett, Cynthia Funk and Naomi Jaffe. W.I.T.C.H. members made their appearance on Halloween 1968 when Florika, Peggy Dobbins, Susan Silverman, Judith Duffett, Ros Baxandall and Cynthia Funk marched down Wall Street dressed as witches in order to place a "hex" on New York City's financial district. They were also joined by W.I.T.C.H. member Bev Grant who photographed the protest.
Florika and the other members of W.I.T.C.H. defected since they did not believe feminism was "intrinsically revolutionary" since the existing system with its technological sophistication might be able to absorb and accommodate" the demands of women.
In 1968, Florika wrote an article called, "Towards Strategy. " She penned this article for the feminist magazine Voice of the Women's Liberation Movement and she outlined the issues she believed to be of importance in organizing a socialist feminist movement. In her article Florika argued that male chauvinism and white racism are counterparts to one another, and that while men are exploited by the capitalist system, women are also additionally exploited by men. Florika further argued that "Woman is directly oppressed and subjugated by the corporation wherever she functions as a consumer", and she also argued that women are "not only projected by the mass media as an object and a commodity for consumption" but have also "emulated and reinforced that image by becoming a self-conscious, self-acting commodity". Florika therefore believed that the capitalist system "should be attacked directly."
In 1969, Florika and a friend named Gilda wrote "The Politics of Day Care", published in Women: A Journal of Liberation in 1970.” This article provides an economic critique of day care as a function of the tension between the needs of the family and the demand for women's labor in a capitalist economy, and argues that for-profit day care is an attempt to regulate children's behavior in preparation for their future employer's discipline.
Florika died from a drug overdose on August 30, 1979, at the age of 33. She is buried alongside her mother and father at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens in New York City.
~Blog by Renee Meyers
