Background
His earliest public performances began at age six with his mother, and at 12 he entered the Curtis Institute, having had earlier advice from Alexander Siloti and his daughter Kyriena.
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Eugene George George Istomin
Edit ProfileEducation
Graduate, Professional Children's School pupil, Kyriena Siloti pupil, Rudolf Serkin student, Mannes School, 1935-1938; student, Curtis Institute Music, 1939-1943.
Career
He was famous for his work in a piano trio in which he collaborated with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose. Born in New York City of Russian parents, Istomin was a child prodigy. He went on to study under Rudolf Serkin and also Mieczysław Horszowski.
He made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy, playing a concerto by Chopin, and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Artur Rodziński playing Brahms" Piano Concerto Number.
2 in the same week in 1943. He performed with the conductor Rodzinski and the New York Philharmonic a second time in December 1944, playing Beethoven"s Fourth Piano Concerto.
He commissioned and premiered Roger Sessions" piano concerto in 1956. Several other composers, including Henri Dutilleux and Ned Rorem, wrote music for him.
The Istomin-Stern-Rose Trio he formed with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose made many recordings, particularly of music by Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert.
He also was known as a soloist, performing many concerts of orchestral music, with conductors such as Eugene Ormandy, Bruno Walter, Leonard Bernstein, Fritz Reiner, George Szell and Leopold Stokowski. He recorded extensively for Columbia (later Sony Classical), solo works and chamber music As late as 2001, he made the world premiere recording of Paul Paray"s Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra, with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra under Jean-Bernard Pommier.
She is a former president of the Manhattan School of Music and former artistic director of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, District of Columbia He moved to Washington in 1980.
He was an avid reader and book collector and, eventually, attracted the interest of New York publishing magnate, William Jovanovich. In 1980, Istomin was hired by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers to advise the company in the publication of facsimile editions of original editions by Joseph Conrad and Thomas Hardy, among others
In the 1980s and 1990s, he toured 30 American cities—largely in the Midwest—in a twelve-ton truck with his own Steinway pianos and piano tuner. lieutenant was the expression of a lifelong conviction that classical music belonged to the ordinary American.
In this same vein, he was an ardent fan of the Detroit Tigers baseball team
Better known in Europe than in the United States, Eugene Istomin received the French Légion d"honneur in 2001. He died of liver cancer in 2003 at his home in Washington. Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:.
Achievements
Membership
Casals Prades and Puerto Rico festivals since 1950.
Interests
Connections
Married Marta Montanez Casals in 1975.
