Frey, Emil

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Frey, Emil

Frey, Emil, eminent Swiss pianist, teacher, and composer, brother of Walter Frey; b. Baden, April 8, 1889; d. Zurich, May 20, 1946. He studied with Otto Barblan at the Geneva Cons.; at the age of 15, he was accepted as a student of Diemer in piano and Widor in composition; in 1907 he went to Berlin, and later to Bucharest, where he became a court pianist. In 1910 he won the Anton Rubinstein prize for his Piano Trio in St. Petersburg; on the strength of this success, he was engaged to teach at the Moscow Cons. (1912–17). Returning to Switzerland after the Russian Revolution, he joined the faculty of the Zurich Cons.; he continued his concert career throughout Europe and also in South America. He wrote 2 syms. (the 1st with a choral finale), piano concerto, violin concerto, cello concerto, Swiss Festival Overture, piano quintet, string quartet, piano trio, violin sonata, cello sonata, several piano sonatas, piano suites, and sets of piano variations. He publ. a piano instruction manual, Bewusst gewordenes Klavierspiel und seine technischen Grundlagen (Zurich, 1933).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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