Ruth Slenczynska “The Legacy of a Genius” • Music by Bach, Liszt, and Chopin/Liszt the Artist “She Knows What She Is Doing Every Minute of the Time
uth lenczynska Historic Performances of Bach, Liszt and Chopin/Liszt Ruth Slenczynska “The Legacy of a Genius” • Music by Bach, Liszt, and Chopin/Liszt The Artist “She knows what she is doing every minute of the time. It is amazing!” – Josef Hofmann after hearing Ruth Slenczynska in her New York debut at Town Hall, 1933. Ruth Slenczynska was born in Sacramento, California on January 15, 1925. From the time she was two years old, Ruth’s musicianship was evident to all. She was able to recognize and hum (in the correct keys!) themes by Beethoven, Bach and Mozart. By the age of three, she had mastered the rudi- ments of music theory and harmony. She began her studies with her father, a violin teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, and gave her first public recital at the age of four, on May 10, 1929, at Mills College in Oakland. On Sunday, March 16, 1930, she gave a “farewell recital” at Erlanger’s Columbia Theatre in San Francisco. The program fea- tured works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Grieg, C.P.E. Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. She was awarded a scholarship by Josef Hofmann to study at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and this concert by the five-year-old was her last appearance before commencing studies. Ruth Slenczynska, age 11, in 1936 Hofmann taught her to lean into the piano keys on the soft part of her fingers in order to produce the desired sound. Although she received a few lessons from Hofmann, because of his busy concert schedule, she actually studied with Madame Isabelle Vengerova.
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