Grete Sultan (born Johanna Margarete Sultan) (June 21, 1906June 26, 2005) was a German-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, j ...

. Born in Berlin into a musical Jewish family, she studied piano from an early age with American pianist Richard Buhlig, and later with

Leonid Kreutzer Leonid Kreutzer (13 March 1884 in St. Petersburg – 30 October 1953 in Tokyo) was a classical pianist. Life and career Kreutzer was born in St. Petersburg into a Jewish family. He studied composition under Alexander Glazunov and piano under An ...

and

Edwin Fischer Edwin Fischer (6 October 1886 – 24 January 1960) was a Swiss classical pianist and conductor. He is regarded as one of the great interpreters of J.S. Bach and Mozart in the twentieth century. Biography Fischer was born in Basel and studied ...

. In 1933, after the

nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

came to power in Germany, she was, as all

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

were, banned from playing in public and could only appear in concerts of the "Jüdischer Kulturbund" (Jewish Culture Association). With Buhlig's help, Sultan fled Germany in 1941 via Lisbon, from where she emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

by ship. She settled 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 U ...

and took up piano teaching, first at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely fol ...

and the 92nd Street Y, then at the

Masters School The Masters School (colloquially known as Masters), is a Private school, private, coeducational boarding school and day college preparatory school located in Dobbs Ferry, New York, Dobbs Ferry, New York (state), New York. Its campus is locate ...

Dobbs Ferry, New York Dobbs Ferry is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 10,875 according to the 2010 United States Census. In 2019, its population rose to an estimated 11,027. The village of Dobbs Ferry is located in, and is a ...

. In the mid-1940s, she met the composer John Cage and became good friends with him, and it was through Sultan that Cage met one of her students, Christian Wolff, who gave Cage his first copy of the ''

I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zh ...

''—a book that shaped Cage's composition methods during the subsequent decades. Cage dedicated two pieces to Sultan. The first was part of his '' Music for Piano'' series, ''Music for Piano 53–68''. In 1974, when Sultan was in the process of learning Cage's '' Music of Changes'', the composer offered to write some new music for her, and the result was a monumental piano cycle, ''

Etudes Australes ''Etudes Australes'' is a set of etudes for piano solo by John Cage, composed in 1974–75 for Grete Sultan. It comprises 32 indeterminate pieces written using star charts as source material. The etudes, conceived as duets for two independent h ...

''.Kostelanets 2003, 91. Sultan made the premiere recording of the work and played it in concerts worldwide. She also performed the music of

Alan Hovhaness Alan Hovhaness (; March 8, 1911 – June 21, 2000) was an United States, American-Armenians, Armenian composer. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies (surviving manuscr ...

and Tui St. George Tucker, but contemporary composers were not the only ones that interested her: in the 1940s she helped popularize

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...

's ''

Goldberg Variations The ''Goldberg Variations'', BWV 988, is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, it is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may also h ...

'', and her concert programs included music from

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

, Chopin, and

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

Earle Brown Earle Brown (December 26, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems. Brown was the creator of "open form," a style of musical construction that has influenced many composers since� ...

and

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School ...

. Grete Sultan gave her last recital in 1996, aged 90, at New York's Merkin Concert Hall, performing Bach's ''Goldberg Variations''. She died in a Manhattan hospital five days after her 99th birthday. In spring 2012, Schott Music, Germany, published the first biography on Grete Sultan, titled "Rebellische Pianistin. Das Leben der Grete Sultan zwischen Berlin und New York", written by Hamburg-based author

Moritz von Bredow Moritz is the German equivalent of the name Maurice. It may refer to: People Given name * Saint Maurice, also called Saint Moritz, the leader of the legendary Roman Theban Legion in the 3rd century * Prince Moritz of Hesse (2007), the son of ...

Discography

* John Cage: Etudes Australes * "Grete Sultan - The Legacy, Vol. 1": Bach (''Goldberg-Variations''), Debussy, Schoenberg and Cage * "Grete Sultan - The Legacy, Vol. 2": Beethoven (''Diabelli Variations''), Copland, Wolpe, Hovhaness, Cage u.a. * Grete Sultan - Piano Seasons (1-Bach; 2-Beethoven; 3-Schubert/Schumann; 4-Schönberg/Copland/Weber/Wolpe/Hovhaness/Cage/Ichiyanagi)

References

* Bredow, Moritz von. 2012. "Rebellische Pianistin. Das Leben der Grete Sultan zwischen Berlin und New York." (Biography).

Schott Music Schott Music () is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe, and is the second oldest music publisher after Breitkopf & Härtel. The company headquarters of Schott Music were fou ...

, Mainz, Germany. * * * Kostelanetz, Richard. 2003. ''Conversing with John Cage''. New York: Routledge. * Revill, David. 1993. ''The Roaring Silence: John Cage – a Life''. Arcade Publishing. ,

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sultan, Grete American classical pianists American women classical pianists German classical pianists German women pianists American people of German-Jewish descent Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Vassar College faculty Jewish classical pianists Musicians from Berlin Musicians from New York City 1906 births 2005 deaths Contemporary classical music performers Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century German musicians 20th-century American pianists 20th-century American women pianists Classical musicians from New York (state) American women academics 20th-century German women 21st-century American women