Friday, April 13, 2007

Musically Gifted... Ruth Slenczynska

This is inspired by a superior blog posted by a gifted singer who calls herself Dancing On the Ceiling. http://dancingontheceiling.blogspot.com/ What a fascinating subject ... gifts we are given and what we do or do not do with them. And when you're older, there is the gnawing "what if..."
I still have vivid memories of sitting in my blue and white '59 Ford Station Wagon in Havre, Montana, listening to CBC Radio from Regina, Saskatchewan. They had one of those radio reader shows, with an announcer reading a chapter from a book each day. The book was "Forbidden Childhood," a memoir by Ruth Slenczynska. That was almost 50 years ago but I still recall being quite spellbound by that story.
Slenczysnska, born in 1925 in California, was a sensation in Europe, called the greatest child piano prodigy since Mozart. She was Rachmaninoff's last pupil. Performed her debut in Berlin at age six. Her father was so demanding that she quit performing at fifteen. The title, "Forbidden Childhood" says it all. It's a painful tale of what a well meaning but misguided parent can do to a gifted child.
She resumed her career later and has written several books about piano technique. As far I can determine from some things found on the net, she is still with us and still teaching at eighty-two. I assume the book is still available. It's well worth a read by gifted ones and their parents.

No comments:

Post a Comment