Pianist und music teacher. She was the daughter of Jens Aarvold (1856-1927) and Mimi, née Kindblad (1876-1968). The parents also had a son Reidar. She studied with Nils Larsen and Leonid Kreutzer (1921-1922) and celebrated her concert debut in 1921. In 1929 she married Ernst Glaser and the couple had two daughters, Berit (born 5 September 1933) and Liv (born 23 September 1935). Not only did she keep up a demanding performing career herself, but she also looked after her two daughters and was responsible for the family life. Five days after his escape Kari Aarvold Glaser followed her husband into exile with the girls on 10 November 1942.
Kari Aarvold Glaser’s brother Reidar had sold his spinet to pay for her escape to Sweden, agreeing to take her Grøndahl piano as a deposit. He tried to keep the family’s apartment in Oslo’s Colletsgate 8 as long as possible. However, the Office for Liquidation of Jewish Possessions (“likvidasjonsstyret”) forced him to move out in spring 1943. According to a post-war restitution file (documenting the years 1945-47) two women, one named Mehle, the other Dyhli, took over large parts of the Glaser household, while the apartment was given to the musician Willy Fredriksen. The reason for this “legal” transfer was that Ernst Glaser was a German Jew, therefore a German inhabitant, so that SS Hauptsturmführer Wagner at the Viktoria Terrasse-headquarters declared the matter to be a German issue. According to the file, both ladies and the lawyer responsible for the sale of Glaser’s possessions, Helge Schjærve, were already imprisoned in 1945 when Reidar Aarvold applied for the restitution of property of Ernst and Kari Glaser.
