Originally recorded in 1948 at the home of Rose and Clarence Siegel
and newly reissued on Compact Disk.

Segment of Hatikva with introduction by her son Al Ostrin will play in a few moments.

Clarence Siegel supervised the original recordings using his state of the art, "Recordio", machine which made 78rpm records on plastic coated aluminum platters.  This CD was restored and assembled from the few surviving scratchy recordings by her Grandsons, Larry Cohn and Leighton Siegel in February, 2002. In addition to the music some of the voices heard are, Al Ostrin, Bernice Ostrin, Clarence Siegel, Bernard Cohn, Lloyd Ostrin and Andrea Karsh.

Comments by some of her Grandchildren:

Andrea Karsh arkarsh@attbi.com Yes, it arrived on Saturday. We had such a busy weekend this is the first chance to let you know. What a great job you did!! I love the photo... It was fun to listen to and brought back many fond memories. How strange that we should be listening to Grandma 54 years after she recorded it. Also, I have a memory of that day...being quiet while Dad was recording her and talking on the tape with Uncle Lloyd particularly. It is a treasure and thank you so much. It certainly is a labor of love!

3/16/02 Mudita O. Nisker mudita@juno.com Yesterday I received the CD with Grandma Ella Ostrin and "Family Voices". I can't tell you how thrilled I was to hear Grandma play. That is such a treasure for all of us, especially those of us who remember her playing. Thanks to you, Leighton and to Larry as well. I wasn't certain about the voices. Was that Uncle Al Ostrin at the beginning? At first I thought it was Uncle Clarence Siegel but then I switched to thinking it was Al. (It was Al Ostrin. L.S.) Then that long geographical tale by Uncle Bernie Cohn with Uncle Clarence Siegel as the questioner? Is that right? (I believe so. L.S.) And who is the little child singing? Do we know? (It was my sister, Andrea Karsh who was four years old when the recording was made. L.S.) I just talked to my sister Joanie Goldstein. She said that Larry had preserved the original recordings. That's amazing! What a treasure that CD is! Did you know that I had grandma's accordion repaired and have taken a few lessons so that I can play it a little. The accordion repairer told me that it's really important to play it at least once a week since it's a bellows instrument. I just love it. The one on the cover of the CD is the Hohner that she played later in her life. Apparently, that little Hohner was made in the 50's. I think what happened was that her big accordion was too heavy for her to play so she switched the smaller, lighter Hohner. You can't really play in many keys on it. You can hear on Hatikva that she doesn't really do much with the chords to accompany the melody because the Hohner doesn't have enough minor chords. At least that is my assumption! At any rate, I'm inspired by hearing the CD and plan on spending more time playing her lovely little button accordion. When you come out, I'll play you a tune or two! Thanks again for that CD! It really means a lot to me. Love, Mudita

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