Gwendolyn Koldofsky

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Gwendolyn Koldofsky (born Gwendolyn Williams ; born November 1, 1906 in Bowmanville / Ontario ; † November 12, 1998 in Santa Barbara / California ) was a Canadian pianist and music teacher.

Gwendolyn Williams began her pianistic training at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto with Viggo Kihl . At the age of seventeen she came to England and continued her training with Tobias Matthay ; She also studied piano accompaniment with Harold Craxton . Later she took lessons from Marguerite Hasselmans in Paris . At the age of twenty she returned to Canada, where she began her musical career as an accompanist to the singer Jeanne Dusseau . She also worked as a piano accompanist with Rose Bampton , Herta Glaz , Jan Peerce , Hermann Prey , Martial Singher and her own student Marilyn Horne , among others .

In 1943 she married the violinist Adolph Koldofsky , with whom she lived in Toronto and Vancouver, before moving to Los Angeles in 1945 to teach piano accompaniment, chamber music and song poetry at the School of Music at the University of Southern California . Until 1990 she had the status of distinguished professor emerita here . She also gave master classes in singing and piano accompaniment at other universities in the USA and was the accompanist and assistant to Lotte Lehmann at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara for several years . From 1951 to 1989 she was director of song accompaniment at this school.

The recording of a concert with her and Lotte Lehmann from 1959 appeared in 1977 on the Aquitaine label . In 1961 she accompanied Salli Terri on an album of folk songs. The University of Southern California awards a Gwendolyn and Adolph Koldofsky Memorial Scholarship , and since 2012 the University of Toronto has awarded the Gwendolyn Williams Koldofsky Prize for piano accompaniment.

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personal data
SURNAME Koldofsky, Gwendolyn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian pianist and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Bowmanville
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 1998
Place of death Santa Barbara (California)