Rosina Lhévinne (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Bessie; March 29, 1880 – November 9, 1976) was a Russian pianist and famed

pedagogue Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

born in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

Early life, education and family

Rosina Bessie was the younger of two daughters of Maria (née Katz) and Jacques Bessie, a prosperous jeweller from a Dutch Jewish family who emigrated to the Russian Empire to ply his trade as a diamond merchant. There were violent anti-Semitic riots in Kyiv during her first year, and the Bessies moved to Moscow in 1881 or 1882. The young Rosina began studying piano at the age of six with a teacher in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, where the family had moved shortly after her birth. When her teacher became ill, a family friend suggested that she continue her studies with

Josef Lhévinne Josef Lhévinne (13 December 18742 December 1944) was a Russian pianist and piano teacher. Lhévinne wrote a short book in 1924 that is considered a classic: ''Basic Principles in Pianoforte Playing''. Asked how to say his name, he told ''The L ...

, a talented student at the Moscow Imperial Conservatory, five years older than Rosina. She showed great talent and several years later was admitted to the Conservatory, where she also studied with Lhévinne's teacher, Vasily Safonov. At her graduation in 1898, she won the Gold Medal in piano as had Josef before her, and that year the two were married. They had two children, Constantine "Don" Lhevinne (1906–1998) and Marianna Lhevinne Graham (1918–2012).

Music career

Rosina gave up her ambitions to be a solo performer to avoid clashing with her husband Josef's career as a concert pianist, a vow she kept until well after his death in 1944. Thus she confined her activities to teaching and performing on two pianos with her husband.

Jean-Pierre Thiollet Jean-Pierre Thiollet (; born 9 December 1956) is a French writer and journalist. Primarily living in Paris, he is the author of numerous books and one of the national leaders of the European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CEDI), a ...

, ''88 notes pour piano solo'', "Solo de duo", Neva Editions, 2015, p.97. Together they lived and taught in Moscow,

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

, Georgia and later in Berlin before emigrating after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and the

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to New York, where they joined the faculty of the Institute of Musical Art which later became

The Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

Teaching

Having acted essentially as a preparatory teacher to her more famous husband's students for 46 years, she felt reluctant after his death to assume his full duties at the school; however, Juilliard's administrators were unanimous in wanting her to continue in her husband's place. Among her students were many of the best young pianists of the 1940s, 50s and 60s, including

Van Cliburn Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. (; July 12, 1934February 27, 2013) was an American pianist who, at the age of 23, achieved worldwide recognition when he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 during the Cold W ...

, who arrived in her class in 1951. At the height of the Cold War in 1958, he was awarded the First Prize at the inaugural

Tchaikovsky Competition The International Tchaikovsky Competition is a classical music competition held every four years in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia, for pianists, violinists, and cellists between 16 and 32 years of age and singers between 19 and 32 years of ...

in Moscow, becoming an instant worldwide celebrity and bringing international fame to his teacher. Other Lhévinne students include

Martin Canin Martin Canin (March 23, 1930–May 9, 2019) was an American pianist and prominent piano pedagogue who was on the faculty of The Juilliard School from 1976 to 2016 and of Stony Brook University from 1965 to 1993. Canin was born in New York City a ...

(her teaching assistant),

James Levine James Lawrence Levine (; June 23, 1943 – March 9, 2021) was an American conductor and pianist. He was music director of the Metropolitan Opera from 1976 to 2016. He was terminated from all his positions and affiliations with the Met on March 1 ...

(Music Director of the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is opera ...

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(composer and conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra), the composer Judith Lang Zaimont, pianists

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, Walter Buczynski, Kun Woo Paik, Seth Carlin, Eduardo Delgado, Madeleine Forte,

Edna Golandsky Edna Golandsky is a classical music pianist, lecturer and pedagogue of renown. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where she studied under Rosina Lhévinne and Adele Marcus. She later studied privately during many years with noted pedagogue ...

, Tong-Il Han, Anthony & Joseph Paratore, Daniel Pollack, Marcus Raskin,

Misha Dichter Misha Dichter (born September 27, 1945) is an American pianist. Biography Misha Dichter was born in Shanghai to Polish-Jewish parents who fled during WWII. He moved with his family to Los Angeles, California, at the age of two and began studying p ...

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Santos Ojeda Santos Ojeda (January 18, 1917 – May 27, 2004) was a Cuban-born American classical pianist and pedagogue. Life and Studies Ojeda was born in Caibarién in the province of Villa Clara, Cuba. He began studying piano at age 3 with his mother, Mari ...

Joel Ryce-Menuhin Joel Ryce-Menuhin (June 11, 1933 – March 31, 1998) was an American pianist, who later became a Jungian psychologist in private practice. Biography Joel Ryce-Menuhin was born as Joel Taylor Rice in Sterling, Illinois to Joseph Kenneth Rice (1901 ...

Garrick Ohlsson Garrick Olof Ohlsson (born April 3, 1948) is an American classical pianist. He is the only American to have won first prize in the International Chopin Piano Competition, at the VIII competition in 1970. He also won first prize at the Busoni Com ...

, Joseph William Fennimore,

Hiroko Nakamura was a Japanese pianist. Born Hiroko Fukuda in Yamanashi, she grew up in Tokyo. She began to study piano at the age of 3 at Toho Gakuen School of Music under Aiko Iguchi. In 1959, whilst a student at Chutobu Junior High School, she won first ...

Selma Epstein Selma Epstein (August 14, 1927 – November 21, 2014) was an American concert pianist, teacher, and champion of contemporary music by women and African Americans. Biography Born August 14, 1927 in Brooklyn, New York to Tillie (Schneider) and Sa ...

, Robelyn Schrade, Neal Larrabee, and many others including several present-day teachers at the Juilliard School.

Performance

In 1949 Mme. Lhévinne reconsidered her decision never to play in public as a soloist, and in her 70s and 80s she made a remarkable series of appearances, first in collaboration with the Juilliard String Quartet, and later in concertos at the Aspen Summer Music Festival. Her greatest moment as a soloist came in January 1963, aged 82, with her debut at the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...

under conductor

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

playing

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...

's Piano Concerto No. 1, a piece she had performed for her graduation from the Moscow Conservatory sixty-five years earlier. There are recordings of both the Chopin Concerto and

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

's C major Concerto, K. 467.

Death and legacy

Madame Lhévinne continued to teach at Juilliard and at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she died in 1976 at age 96. Just prior to her death, Robert K. Wallace published a book about the Lhévinnes entitled ''A Century of Music-Making: The Lives of Josef and Rosina Lhévinne'', for which she was extensively interviewed. In 2003, Madame Lhévinne's former student and assistant, Salome Ramras Arkatov, produced a documentary film, ''The Legacy of Rosina Lhévinne'', which contains rare archival footage of Lhévinne's teaching and performing as well as interviews with a number of her former students.

References

External links

Rosina Lhévinne , Jewish Women's Archive

* http://www.naxos.com/person/Rosina_Lhevinne/2230.htm
The Rosina Lhevinne papers
(her personal archive) in th
Music Division
o
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lhevinne, Rosina 1880 births 1976 deaths American classical pianists American women classical pianists Jewish classical pianists Musicians from Kyiv Musicians from Moscow Ukrainian classical pianists Ukrainian women pianists Juilliard School faculty Piano pedagogues University of Southern California faculty Moscow Conservatory alumni Ukrainian women musicians Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States 20th-century American women pianists 20th-century classical pianists Women music educators 20th-century American pianists American women academics