Pleasures of Life

One of Asch's first loves was singing. One of her most memorable experiences was leading her high school student-run choir which was chosen to sing at the "Mostly Mozart Festival" held at Lincoln Center in 1968. She also participated in many choral groups in college at Swarthmore and took many courses from the Music department as well. One of her next goals is to become more involved in singing here at Wellesley College. She enjoys listening to 15th and 16th century classical music, her favorite composers being Bach, Brahms, and Josquin. Her favorite piece of music from this period is Bach's Brandenburg Concerto, No. 6. If you would like to listen to some of her favorites, visit this Bach site.

Asch also takes pleasure in reading and going to movies. Her favorite books are Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch and Howard's End by E.M. Forster. W.B. Yeats stands out as one of her best liked poets. Among the many movies she has seen, she regards "Murder in the First", about inmates in Alcatraz, as one of her favorite films. Now and then, she also finds Woody Allen movies to be entertaining.

In her free time, Asch enjoys visiting with friends and reading books. Other hobbies include riding a tandem bicycle, cross country skiing, going to concerts and movies, and of course, singing. Two of the most important things in her life are her cat and her Godchild Lil, whose pictures are included.

Photo of Asch with cat

A Lucky Life

Asch regards "luck" as a very important factor in her life; it produced her dream job and also caused her to meet one of her lifelong friends. On a particular day when Asch was a teenager, her father picked her up and there was a hitchhiker in the car. As they talked, she learned that this hitchhiker and his father had worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. Being very involved and interested in civil rights, Asch was amazed at how this fascinating person just happened to be sitting in her car! She considers the experience pure luck (her father randomly picked up this man, not knowing about the interesting facet of his life in civil rights) and continues to be great friends with him until this day.

Luck also played a role when Asch moved to New York as an adult. As an avid singer, she wanted to further her studies and looked for a voice teacher in the city. To her pleasant surprise, the woman who lived right next door to her in her apartment was the best Renaissance music teacher in all of New York! Feeling incredibly fortunate (and lucky!) she took lessons from her neighbor and enjoyed it tremendously.

The most recent role luck has played in her life is in finding Asch her job at Wellesley. She was teaching at Boston College when she saw an advertisement in a journal which said that Wellesley was looking for someone to design and implement a program in Bioethics for the college under a grant from the Henry R. Luce Foundation. She specializes particularly in the Bioethics field and found the opportunity too wonderful to pass by. With the deadline for applicants quickly approaching, she applied and was ecstatic to learn that she earned the position. Asch loves teaching her Wellesley courses. When asked about her most amazing lifetime experience, she stated that it was "Finding out about the Wellesley job and getting it!"