There are some things 89-year-old Herbert Zipper doesn't do. He doesn't, for instance, use a high-tech computer. And he doesn't work out at a fancy health club.
There are many things Herbert Zipper does do, however. He teaches and composes music, and conducts professional musicians in symphonic programs. He also teaches a twice-weekly counterpoint music class at Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica. And he visits China regularly to lecture and teach about Western music.
"I have no time to grow old," said the longtime Pacific Palisades resident and musician, who will celebrate his 90th birthday in a few months.
On Wednesday, Zipper was awarded the Golden Decoration of Honor for humanitarian service to the city of Vienna. The award was presented by the Austrian consul-general, Christian Prosl, at a ceremony in Los Angeles.
"I spent a great deal of time composing and writing for Austria," said Zipper, a native of Vienna. "I wrote for underground theaters, and that was my beginning in the politics of the world."
Zipper is perhaps best-known for music he made in an unlikely place--a Nazi concentration camp. In 1938, the young conductor/composer was arrested and imprisoned at Dachau. As an inmate, Zipper secretly formed an orchestra. He and 14 other musicians risked their lives to perform music for other inmates in an unused latrine.
The music Zipper composed in his head while pushing carts full of stone day after day included "Dachau Song." He said the experience allowed him to appreciate the humanizing power of the arts.
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It was not until years later that Zipper discovered that the song had been passed from one prisoner to another and even to other camps. In 1988, he conducted its world premiere, sung by a chorus of young men at a festival in the Austrian city of Graz.
"(The Austrians) took this as one of the most contemporary and living parts of the rebellion against what happened during the war," he said. "They appreciate my convictions. There is much more understanding of what present Austria is and past Austria is. . . . I think that I have helped (present the truth) in some way."
Zipper's life story is the subject of a book published last year by Crossroads School President Paul Cummins. The book titled "Dachau Song" documents the Austrian-born musician's remarkable life.
