Helena Lewyn
American pianist (1889–1980)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Helena Lewyn (December 16, 1889[1] – August 30, 1980) was an American pianist, composer, and piano teacher.
- Pianist
- piano teacher
Helena Lewyn | |
|---|---|
Helena Lewyn, from the Library of Congress | |
| Born | December 16, 1889 Houston, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | August 30, 1980 (aged 90) Grants Pass, Oregon, U.S. |
| Other names | Helena Lewyn-Hassenstein |
| Occupations |
|
| Spouse |
Walter Kurt Max Hassenstein
(m. 1928, divorced) |
Early life
Lewyn was born in Houston, Texas,[2][3] the daughter of Isadore Lewyn and Carrie Jeremias Lewyn. Her family was Jewish; her parents were both born in Germany, and her father was a druggist. She showed musical aptitude from early childhood.[4][5] She studied piano with Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler in Chicago and with Conrad Ansorge and Leopold Godowsky in Berlin. She also studied composition with Edgar Stillman Kelley.[6][7][8]
Career
Lewyn toured giving concerts in Germany in 1909,[9] made her London debut at Bechstein Hall in the spring of 1910,[10] and toured with the New York Symphony Orchestra under Walter Damrosch from 1910 to 1912.[3][7] In 1910 the Houston Music Festival Association presented her with a gold medal, to "cordially congratulate you upon making such a triumphant American debut in your home city."[11]
Lewyn was based in Los Angeles by the end of 1922.[12] She served on the advisory board for the Hollywood Bowl summer concerts,[13] and participated in a benefit event for the Los Angeles Music School Settlement in 1925.[14] She also performed at the Hollywood Bowl on several occasions.[15][16] She and violinist Vera Barstow gave a series of joint performances in southern California and on radio programs in the 1920s.[17][18] She also performed with violinist Ben Whitman.[19]
In the 1930s and 1940s, she continued to give concerts,[20] including radio concerts,[21] and taught at her own piano studio on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.[5][16] One of her students was actor Bobby Breen.[22] "Her program, although on the conventional side, was meaty, judiciously built and executed with musicianly aplomb," commented one reviewer in 1945.[20]
Lewyn was known to compose music. She set a poem by fellow Texan Judd Mortimer Lewis to music in 1910.[23] She owned an antique German piano.[24]
Personal life
Lewyn married Walter Kurt Max Hassenstein in Berlin in 1928; they later divorced. She died in 1980, at the age of 90, while on vacation in Grants Pass, Oregon.[25]
