Isabelle Yalkovsky Byman
Isabelle Yalkovsky Byman | |
|---|---|
 Isabelle Yalkovsky (seated at keyboard) and Esther Harris-Dua (standing), from a 1922 publication | |
| Born | December 24, 1906 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Died | December 27, 1981 (aged 75) Bakersfield, California, USA |
| Occupation | Pianist |
Isabelle Yalkovsky Byman (December 24, 1906 – December 27, 1981) was an American pianist and music educator. After a career as a concert pianist, Byman taught at Juilliard, and was head of piano pedagogy at the Manhattan School of Music.
Early life
Yalkovsky was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Shlomo (Samuel) Yalkovsky and Liba (Elizabeth) Lamb Yalkovsky. Her parents were Jewish immigrants from Belarus. She was considered a child musical prodigy in Chicago.[1] She studied with Esther Harris-Dua at the Chicago College of Music[2][3] and with Olga Samaroff Stokowski at Juilliard.[4] She won the Schubert Memorial Prize in 1929.[5]
Career
Yalkovsky first appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra when she was 13 years old. She also played with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski,[6] and toured the United States and Canada as a concert pianist.[7][8] She made her first recordings in 1929.[9] "Throughout the playing of Miss Yalkovsky," commented a reviewer in Ohio in 1933, "one is impressed with her sound and adequate technique, the flair for piquant rhythms, and her keen sensitivity for the inner meanings of her music."[5]
She taught at Juilliard, and performed and lectured regularly in Woodstock, New York in the 1950s and 1960s.[10][11] She served as music editor of the Police and Firemen National Press.[12] From 1971 to 1981, she was head of piano pedagogy at the Manhattan School of Music.[4]
She was author of The Piano Teachers Art: Guidelines for Successful Teaching (1980).[13] She also made an educational film, The Language of Music.[6]
Personal life
Isabelle Yalkovsky married Barnett Byman, who was an executive of the National Orchestral Association.[14] They had a daughter, Luba,[15] and lived in New York City. Isabelle Yalkovsky Byman died in 1981, from a heart attack while visiting Bakersfield, California.[4]
References
- ^ "Isabelle Byman at Maverick Hall Saturday Night". The Kingston Daily Freeman. 1960-08-16. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-01-30 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Chicago College of Music Commencement". Music News. 14: 21. June 30, 1922.
- ^ C. E. W. (April 14, 1922). "Isabelle Yalkovsky Plays a Heroic Program with Great Authority". Music News. 14: 5.
- ^ a b c "Isabelle Byman, Pianist And an Educator, 75". The New York Times. 1982-01-19. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
- ^ a b Sturm, Virginia D. (1933-02-25). "Talented Young Artist Heard in Civic Concert". Dayton Daily News. p. 14. Retrieved 2021-01-30 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Ellison, Karl (March 2007). "Isabelle Yalkovsky Byman" (PDF). The Amica Bulletin. 44: 60–61.
- ^ "Hailed as Pianist". The News-Palladium. 1929-11-05. p. 4. Retrieved 2021-01-30 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Isabelle Yalkovsky in Junior League Concert". The Evening News. 1930-11-19. p. 10. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
- ^ "Isabelle Yalkovsky", Dictionary of American Historical Recordings (DAHR).
- ^ "Byman, Kohon and Kay Play at Sunday Winter Festival". The Kingston Daily Freeman. 1959-02-18. p. 17. Retrieved 2021-01-30 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Concert-Lecture Presented at Woodstock". The Kingston Daily Freeman. 1968-09-04. p. 22. Retrieved 2021-01-30 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Isabelle Byman is Music Editor". The Kingston Daily Freeman. 1955-11-03. p. 21. Retrieved 2021-01-30 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Byman, Isabelle. (1979). The piano teachers art : guidelines for successful teaching. De Vito, Albert. Westbury, N.Y.: Kenyon Publications. ISBN 0-934286-13-2. OCLC 6330877.
- ^ Thibaut, Richard E. Jr. (1954-10-04). "Resumes Career as Pianist in Island Concert". The Kingston Daily Freeman. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-01-30 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Luba Byman Bride of Robert Staller". The New York Times. January 16, 1956. p. 15 – via ProQuest.
External links
- Women at the Piano: An Anthology of Historic Performances, Vol. 3 (1928-1954) (Naxos 2007), features a recording of Isabelle Yalkovsky
- Autographed publicity portrait of Isabelle Yalkovsky (1930), in the Bessie Bartlett Frankel Collection of Travel and Early Los Angeles Music, The Claremont Colleges Digital Library
- Hand signed portrait of Isabelle Yalkovsky dedicated to the Cradle Club (1932), The Miss Margaret Robins Archives of Women’s College Hospital, Scrapbook collection, Digital Museums Canada
- Steve Cohen, Sextet for Piano and Winds (1977), commissioned by and dedicated to Isabelle Yalkovsky Byman
