Joan Brill began playing the piano at a young age, studying the instrument with noted teachers including Arthur Hollander and Rosalyn Tureck and at the Juilliard School of Music. She went on to play the keyboard in the Brill-Gaffney Trio, which performed widely for 35 years, and played with the Keys Chamber Players in Florida.
Ms. Brill died at home in East Hampton of respiratory failure and Alzheimer’s disease on March 15. She was 92.
Joan Rothman was born in Greenport in 1930, the youngest of four children of David and Ruth Samuel Rothman, and grew up in Southold. Her family owned Rothman’s Department Store, which sold whatever was in demand at the time. In 1939, Albert Einstein spent the summer in Southold and became friends with Mr. Rothman because they both played the violin. Ms. Brill wrote a book about that summer: “My Father and Albert Einstein.”
She graduated from Southold High School with the highest average in school history at the time. She went on to graduate from Southampton College, and completed a master’s degree in music from Stony Brook University, where she then taught piano.
In 1950, she married Robert Brill and moved to East Hampton, where they ran Brill’s Store on North Main Street for many years. Their daughter Shelley Brill Kurtz of Springs, a piano teacher, survives; her sister, Leslie Lynn Brill of Milwaukee, died in 2004.
Mr. Brill died of pancreatic cancer in 1971. Ms. Brill kept the store running by herself after his death, before selling the property in 1986. Today, it is home to East Hampton Flowers.
In 1976, Ms. Brill met Paul Kallmeyer, and the two were married. He designed their residence, a solar-powered house on Three Mile Harbor Road.
As a sailing enthusiast, Ms. Brill was an active longtime member of the East Hampton Power Squadron. The Brills were among the earliest members of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, which began in 1959 when 23 East Hampton residents began meeting for services in their own homes. She was also involved with Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America.
Mr. Kallmeyer survives, as do three grandchildren, Orin Kurtz, Nathania Horowitz, and Aaron Lee Davidson, and four great-grandchildren, Elliot and Camryn Horowitz and Jacob and Alyssa Davidson. Ms. Brill’s two brothers, Arthur Ozaias and Robert Herman, and her sister, Emma Leah Levin, died before her.
Ms. Brill was buried in the Chevra Kodetia Cemetery in Sag Harbor on Friday. No services are planned.
