Samaroff, Olga (née Hickenlooper)

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Samaroff, Olga (née Hickenlooper)

Samaroff, Olga (née Hickenlooper ), American pianist and educator; b. San Antonio, Aug. 8, 1882; d. N.Y., May 17, 1948. She studied as a child with her mother and grandmother (Mrs. L. Grünewald, a former concert pianist), and subsequently studied in Paris (with Delaborde), Baltimore (with Ernest Hutcheson), and Berlin (with Ernst Jedliczka). She made her concert debut in N.Y. (Jan. 18, 1905) with the N.Y. Sym. Soc.; appeared with other orchs. in the U.S. and Europe; gave joint recitals with Kreisler, Zimbalist, and other violinists. She was music critic for the N.Y. Evening Post (1927–29); was on the faculties of the Philadelphia Cons. and the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. (1924–48); among her outstanding students were Eugene List, Rosalyn Tureck, William Kapell, and Alexis Weissen-berg. In 1911 she married Leopold Stokowski ; they divorced in 1923. Her autobiography was publ. as An American Musician’s Story (N.Y, 1939). She also publ. The Layman’s Music Book (N.Y, 1935; second ed., rev., 1947, as The Listener’s Music Book), The Magic World of Music (N.Y, 1936), and A Music Manual (N.Y, 1937).

Bibliography

D. Pucciani, O. S. (1882–1948), American Musican and Educator (diss., N.Y.U., 1979).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire