Isabelle Vengerova ( be, Ізабэла Венгерава; 7 February 1956) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, later American,

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

and

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

. She was born Izabella Afanasyevna Vengerova (Изабелла Афанасьевна Венгерова) in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

(now in

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

) in the family of Pauline Vengerova and her husband Chonon. Her elder brother Semyon Vengerov was a venerable literary historian. She studied the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

at the Vienna Conservatory with Josef Dachs, and privately with

Theodor Leschetizky Theodor Leschetizky (sometimes spelled Leschetitzky, pl, Teodor Leszetycki; 22 June 1830 – 14 November 1915 was an Austrian- Polish pianist, professor, and composer born in Landshut in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, then a crown land of ...

; in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

she studied with

Anna Yesipova Anna Yesipova (born ''Anna Nikolayevna Yesipova'' '' russian:_Анна_Николаевна_Есипова.html" ;"title="/nowiki>russian: Анна Николаевна Есипова">/nowiki>russian: Анна Николаевна Есипов� ...

. In Vienna she was a good friend of

Arthur Schnitzler Arthur Schnitzler (15 May 1862 – 21 October 1931) was an Austrian author and dramatist. Biography Arthur Schnitzler was born at Praterstrasse 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, capital of the Austrian Empire (as of 1867, part of the dual monarchy ...

. From 1906 to 1920 she taught at the Imperial Conservatory in St Petersburg and then toured the USSR and Western Europe from 1920 to 1923, when she settled in the USA. While still in St. Petersburg in 1910, she recorded three pieces on

Welte-Mignon M. Welte & Sons, Freiburg and New York was a manufacturer of orchestrions, organs and reproducing pianos, established in Vöhrenbach by Michael Welte (1807–1880) in 1832. Overview From 1832 until 1932, the firm produced mechanical musi ...

player piano A player piano (also known as a pianola) is a self-playing piano containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism, that operates the piano action via programmed music recorded on perforated paper or metallic rolls, with more modern im ...

music rolls. In 1924 she helped found the Curtis Institute and in 1933 joined the faculty of the

Mannes College Mannes School of Music is a music conservatory in The New School, a private research university in New York City. In the fall of 2015, Mannes moved from its previous location on Manhattan's Upper West Side to join the rest of the New School ca ...

, teaching at both institutions until her death in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1956. She made her debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1925. Vengerova was also known for her painstaking attention to detail and for a psychological insight that brought out the best in each pupil. While she denied having a particular method, she drilled all students in techniques designed to achieve expressive playing and beautiful tone, keeping the fingers close to the keys for evenness and a seamless

legato In music performance and notation, legato (; Italian for "tied together"; French ''lié''; German ''gebunden'') indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly and connected. That is, the player makes a transition from note to note wit ...

; playing deeply in the keys while using the weight of the forearm and a flexible wrist to achieve a full singing tone without harshness, and controlling tone by higher or lower positions of the wrist. Among her pupils were Blanche Abram, Stanley Babin, Samuel Barber,

Ralph Berkowitz Ralph Berkowitz (September 5, 1910 – August 2, 2011) was an American composer, classical musician, and painter. Biography Berkowitz was born in Brooklyn, New York to a Romanian Jewish couple, Matilda and William Berkowitz who had emigrated ...

, Leonard Bernstein, Anthony di Bonaventura,

Lukas Foss Lukas Foss (August 15, 1922 – February 1, 2009) was a German-American composer, pianist, and conductor. Career Born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922, Foss was soon recognized as a child prodigy. He began piano and theory lessons with J ...

Gary Graffman Gary Graffman (born October 14, 1928) is an American classical pianist, teacher and administrator. Early life Graffman was born in New York City to Russian-Jewish parents. Having started piano at age 3, Graffman entered the Curtis Institute of M ...

, Lilian Kallir,

Gilbert Kalish Gilbert Kalish (born July 2, 1935) is an American pianist. He was born in New York and studied with Leonard Shure, Julius Hereford and Isabelle Vengerova. He was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, a pioneering new music gro ...

, Jacob Lateiner, Julien Musafia,

Leonard Pennario Leonard Pennario (July 9, 1924 – June 27, 2008) was an American classical pianist and composer. He was born in Buffalo, New York, and grew up in Los Angeles, attending Los Angeles High School remaining in L.A. for his entire career. He firs ...

Menahem Pressler Menahem Pressler ( he, מנחם פרסלר; born 16 December 1923) is a German-born Israeli-American pianist. Pressler is Jewish. Following Kristallnacht, he and his immediate family fled Nazi Germany in 1939,

Carl Schachter Carl E. Schachter (born June 1, 1932"Carl E. Schachter," in "New Jersey, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1956-1964" on ''Ancestry.com'') is an American music theorist noted for his expertise in Schenkerian analysis. Born in Chicago, he attended Austin H ...

Abbey Simon Abbey Henry Simon (January 8, 1920 – December 18, 2019) was an American concert pianist, teacher, and recording artist. He was a protégé of Josef Hofmann at the Curtis Institute of Music and a winner of the Naumburg International Piano Comp ...

Dimitri Tiomkin Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin (, ; May 10, 1894 – November 11, 1979) was a Russian-born American film composer and conductor. Classically trained in St. Petersburg, Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution, he moved to Berlin and then New York City ...

, Ronald Turini, Leon Whitesell, and Sylvia Zaremba. Isabelle was the sister of Zinaida Vengerova, a noted literary critic, and Semyon, a literary and intellectual historian. She was the maternal aunt and first teacher of Nicolas Slonimsky, who reports in his autobiography ''Perfect Pitch'' that as a young girl his aunt was kissed on the forehead by Johannes Brahms.Slonimsky, Nicolas (1988). Perfect Pitch. A Life Story. London, England: Oxford University Press. p. 68. ISBN 0-19-315155-3

References

# R. Gerig. ''Famous Pianists and their Technique'' (Washington DC, 1974) # G. Graffman. ''I Really should be Practicing'' (New York, 1981) # R.D. Schick.
The Vengerova System of Piano Playing
' (University Park, PA, 1982) # J. Rezits. ''Beloved Tyranna: the Legend and Legacy of Isabelle Vengerova'' (Bloomington, IN, 1995) {{DEFAULTSORT:Vengerova, Isabelle 1877 births 1956 deaths Musicians from Minsk People from Minsky Uyezd Belarusian Jews Soviet emigrants to the United States American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent Jewish classical pianists Russian classical pianists Russian women pianists American classical pianists American women classical pianists Women music educators Pupils of Theodor Leschetizky Saint Petersburg Conservatory academic personnel American women academics