Tina Lerner (June 5, 1889 – February 26, 1973; in Cyrillic, Тина Лернер) was a Russian-American concert pianist born in

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

Early life

Valentina Osipovna Lerner was the daughter of

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

writers

Osip Mikhailovich Lerner Osip Mikhailovich Lerner (13 January 1847 – 23 January 1907), also known as Y. Y. (Yosef Yehuda) Lerner, was a 19th-century Russian Jewish intellectual, writer, and critic. Originally a ''maskil''—a propagator of the ''Has ...

and Mariam Rabinovitch. She showed musical promise from an early age, in her birthplace, Odessa. She studied at Moscow Conservatory and with

Leopold Godowsky Leopold Mordkhelovich Godowsky Sr. (13 February 1870 – 21 November 1938) was a virtuoso pianist, composer and teacher, born in what is now Lithuania to Jewish parents, who became an United States of America, American citizen in 1891. He ...

, and began performing while still a teenager."Tina Lerner, a Gifted Pianist"
''Musical Courier'' (November 4, 1908): 16.

Career

Lerner performed in Germany and England before she toured North America in 1908 and 1909, performing with orchestras in major cities, starting in New York with a concert at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

. She returned to perform in London in 1912, before embarking on her third American tour (1912–1913). "An audience that represented the wealth and culture of San Francisco went into ecstasies of delight over her remarkable playing of the Tschaikowski Concerto," according to the San Francisco Orchestra's manager, Frank W. Healy. Her fifth American tour commenced in 1917. She toured in South America in 1922. In 1917, she was one of the first pianists to give a concert over a radio telephone, when she played aboard a steamship in the Pacific Ocean in a concert that was transmitted to other steamships between San Francisco and Honolulu, on the occasion of George Washington's birthday. Her performances of works by Chopin and Tchaikovsky were captured on piano rolls. She lived in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

in the 1920s, and taught piano master classes at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

. Shavitch and Lerner gave a concert together at the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and Urban park, public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the United States by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018 and was listed on ...

in 1927.

Personal life

Tina Lerner married twice, both times to musicians. She married Luis Bachner in 1909 and divorced him in 1915. She married conductor Vladimir Shavitch in 1915, a few days after her first marriage was officially ended. The Shavitches had a daughter, Dollina, born in 1916. Tina Lerner was widowed when Vladimir Shavitch died in 1947; she was living in Florence, Italy, with their daughter by then. Tina Lerner's grave is in the Cimitero Monumentale della Misericordia at

Antella Antella is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Ribera Alta in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is also a fraction of Bagno a Ripoli Bagno a Ripoli is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italy, Italian r ...

, near Florence.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lerner, Tina Syracuse University faculty American women classical pianists American classical pianists Russian women pianists Russian classical pianists Musicians from Odesa 1889 births 20th-century deaths Year of death missing 20th-century American women pianists 20th-century American pianists Odesa Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States American women academics Moscow Conservatory alumni