Kelberine, Alexander

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Kelberine, Alexander

Kelberine, Alexander, Russian-American pianist; b. Kiev, Feb. 22, 1903; d. (suicide) N.Y., Jan. 30, 1940. He studied at the Kiev Cons., then at the Univ. of Vienna. He took lessons from Busoni in Berlin, and in 1923 went to America and studied at the Juilliard Graduate School in N.Y. with Siloti (piano) and Gold-mark (composition); later also studied with Toch. A victim of acute depression, he programmed his last recital for pieces in minor keys and of funereal connotations, concluding with Liszt’s Todtentanz; he then went home and took an overdose of sleeping pills. He was married to Jeanne Behrend , but was estranged from her.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire