Slenczynska, Ruth (1925—)

American pianist. Name variations: Ruth Slenczynski. Born in Sacramento, California, on January 15, 1925; daughter of Josef Slenczynski (a violinist and once head of the Warsaw Conservatory).

Ruth Slenczynska's talents were evident at an early age, but her ambitious violinist father subjected her to a regime of extreme severity. She played in public in Berlin at age six, and performed a concerto in Paris five years later. Hailed as one of the great musical prodigies of the age, she studied with Marguerite Long , Artur Schnabel, Alfred Cortot and Egon Petri. Sergei Rachmaninoff showed an interest in her future. By her mid-teen years, her career disintegrated, as the psychological toll of exploitation and mental abuse began to make itself felt in emotionally flat and mechanical performances. Slenczynska withdrew from her musical career to put her life in order; after more than a decade of therapy and confidence-building, she resumed public performances, to mostly positive reviews. In later years, she taught at the University of Southern Illinois, occasionally giving recitals. She published an account of her struggles, Forbidden Childhood (Doubleday), in 1957, and four years later published a guide to piano practice, Music at Your Fingertips.

sources:

Pincherle, Marc. The World of the Virtuoso. Translated by Lucile H. Brockway. NY: W.W. Norton, 1963.

Slenczynska, Ruth. Forbidden Childhood. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1957.

John Haag , Athens, Georgia