British Pianist Ethel Leginska Superb Autograph Photo

Description: BRITISH PIANIST, COMPOSER ETHEL LEGINSKA SIGNED PHOTO Very nice 8" x 11 1/2" photo inscribed "To Bessie Juncker, All good wishes, Sincerely Ethel Leginska"Ethel Liggins (13 April 1886 – 26 February 1970) was a British pianist, composer, conductor and music educator.She was a student of Theodor Leschetizky, later studying composition with Rubin Goldmark and Ernest Bloch, and conducting with Eugene Goossens, Robert Heger and Gennaro Papi.[1] Among her students were pianist and harpsichordist Gavin Williamson, James Henry Fields, Daniel Pollack and Bruce Sutherland.[2] She was a pioneer of women's opportunity in music performance and conducting,[3] being the first woman to conduct many of the world's leading orchestrasEthel Liggins was born in Hull, Yorkshire, England,[4] to Thomas and Annie Peck Liggins.[2] With support from wealthy patron Mary Emma Wilson, the wife of the shipping magnate Arthur Wilson, she attended the Hoch conservatory in Frankfurt, where she studied piano under James Kwast, and composition under Bernhard Sekles and Iwan Knorr.[2] She also studied in Vienna with the famed Polish pianist and professor, Theodor Leschetizky.[4] She went on tour in Australia in 1905,[5] and performed in Europe under the stage name Ethel Leginska from 1906 on, at the suggestion of British socialite Lady Maud Warrender (the wife of Sir George Warrender), as at that time the best top-class musicians were Polish, hence the Polish-sounding name "Leginska" considered advantageous to the development of the young pianist musical career.[6] She kept that name throughout her career and upon her debut in the United States she was dubbed by the press "The Paderewski of women pianists".[4][7][8]In 1907 Leginska married the composer Emerson Whithorne, whom she had met when they both studied in Vienna. They would sometimes perform together, with him playing the second part in two-piano pieces on her recitals and from the time they married through 1909 him serving as her concert manager. He later wrote music criticism for "Musical America" and "Paul Mall Gazette", and as a composer, he had his music performed frequently in the 1920s and 1930s.[9] She and Emerson Whithorne had one son, Cedric Whithorne, born in September 1908[2] after the couple returned from visiting Whithorne's native United States. They did so at least once prior to their divorce, traveling to Cleveland, OH where Leginska make her unofficial American debut in Cleveland's Hippodrome, a vaudeville theater.[10] Nonetheless, the couple separated in 1910 and divorced in 1916.[1] After an unsuccessful custody fight for her son Cedric,[2] Leginska became even more outspoken about inadequate opportunities for women,[2] stating that self-sacrifice for family's sake is "over-rated" and that "it is impossible for a woman with a career to be unselfish".[11]From her official American debut in New York's Aeolian Hall on 20 January 1913,[2] Leginska's popularity in the U.S. was growing, aided by both the careful staging of her performances, with well-thought-out lighting and decor to focus on the performer, and her distinctive style of dressing (favoring menswear) eagerly copied by her young fans, as well as her diminutive size and her youthful appearance that not only made the musical youth more likely to relate to her, but often misled not only her audiences but even the reviewers who would express their astonishment that a person so "young" displayed such skill as hers (this going on all the way into Leginska's late thirties, as made evident in the Detroit News critic Robert Kelly's description of her perform at 37).[12] In 1923, Leginska went to London to study orchestral conducting with Eugene Goossens.[2] She also studied conducting with Robert Heger, conductor of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, proceeding to conduct as guest conductor with major orchestras in Munich, Paris, London or Berlin, taking advantage of her earlier contacts established when she performed as a pianist, as well as agreeing to also perform in a concerto on the programs.[6] Being a woman conductor also helped her attract attention, as a novelty. She conducted a performance of her orchestral suite Quatre sujets barbares.[2] In 1925, she made her debut as a conductor in the United States with the New York Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall,[2] after which she appeared with the Boston People's Orchestra in the spring and then performing at the Hollywood Bowl in the summer of 1925. She had suffered nervous breakdowns in 1909, 1925 and 1926.[13][14] In 1926 she announced a permanent retirement from performing as a pianist and focused on conducting, composing and teaching.[6]Ethel Leginska sitting at a pianoThough her output as a composer was limited, she distinguished herself as an organizer, establishing the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra which she conducted (1926–27), heading the Boston Woman's Symphony Orchestra (1926-1930) with which she went on two extensive tours.[15] She also directed the Boston English Opera Company,[16] founded the National Women's Symphony Orchestra in New York in 1932 and served as director of the Chicago Women's Symphony Orchestra.[16] In the late 1930s, when her conducting opportunities began to diminish as her novelty wore off, she left the U.S. again, to teach piano in London and Paris before settling in 1939 in Los Angeles. She opened a piano studio and was a well-respected teacher into the 1950s. In the meantime, in 1943, she founded the concert series New Ventures in Music, with Mary Holloway, mainly to promote her pupils.[2][17] In 1957 she once again conducted - a Los Angeles performance of her first opera The Rose and the Ring, written in 1932.Ethel Leginska died in Los Angeles of a stroke on 26 February 1970, aged 83. CELEBRATING 24 YEARS IN BUSINESS!!PLEASE DO NOT WASTE OUR TIME BY WINNING AN ITEM AND NOT PAYING FOR IT!! YOU WILL BE REPORTED TO EBAY AND BLOCKED FROM OUR AUCTIONS!!! ALSO WE WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY BIDS FROM 0 FEEDBACKS, THEY WILL BE CANCELLED! NO RESERVETERMS OF SALE: PLEASE READ!!1. Payment is due within 5 days of the close of this auction. We are set automatically on Unpaid Bidder Assistant.2. Payment methods: All major credit cards & PayPal accepted. If using PayPal, we ship to confirmed addresses only! It will only delay shipment of your item if you do not have a confirmed address! 3. Pennsylvania residents must add 6% sales tax. 4. If you have any questions, please ask prior to bidding. 5. All items are guaranteed authentic. COAs issued upon request. (Only for signed items) We are members of the UACC and Manuscript Society. You can buy with complete confidence.6. Buyer pays for shipping. (combine shipping for multiple items) PLEASE NOTE IF BIDDING OUTSIDE OF THE U.S. - WE ONLY SHIP THROUGH EBAY'S GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM SO PLEASE READ AND UNDERSTAND THEIR TERMS AND CONDITIONS!!Thanks for looking and Good Luck bidding!The Inkwell Autograph Gallery

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End Time: 2025-01-03T20:20:54.000Z

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