Background
Alda was born Arlene Weiss in the Bronx, New York City to Jewish parents.
Alda was born Arlene Weiss in the Bronx, New York City to Jewish parents.
She attended Evander Childs High School and Hunter College, graduating in January 1954 as a music major, Phi Beta Kappa, Cum Laude. Weiss was a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to Cologne, Germany, where she studied clarinet at the "Kölnische Hochschule für Musik". She studied clarinet with Abraham Goldstein and Leon Russianoff, becoming a member of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, playing assistant first clarinet and bass clarinet under the baton of Leopold Stokowski.
Weiss played first clarinet in the Ridgefield Orchestra conducted by Beatrice Brown. She pursued an early interest in photography by studying with Mort Shapiro and Lou Bernstein, ultimately changing careers and becoming a photographer and writer As a photographer, Alda had several major one person shows, including those in Nikon House in New York City and the Mark Humphrey Gallery in Southampton, New New York
On her return to New York, she became a member of the National Orchestra, a training orchestra, conducted by Leon Barzin.