Ida Krehm
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- Canadian
- United States of America
Ida Krehm | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 24, 1912 |
| Died | August 12, 1998 (aged 86) |
| Other names | Ida Pick |
| Citizenship |
|
| Education | Hambourg Conservatory |
| Occupation | Pianist |
| Spouse |
Joseph Richard Pick
(m. 1936; died 1955) |
| Relatives | William Krehm (brother) |
Ida Krehm (February 24, 1912 – August 12, 1998) was a Canadian-American pianist. She began playing the piano at the age of seven and studied at the Hamburg Conservatory. Krehm earned recognition as an orchestral soloist and recitalist with various symphony orchestras in the Americas and Europe. She also performed the role of a conductor-pianist and recorded the works of various composers. The Ida Krehm Memorial Scholarship was setup by her family at The Royal Conservatory of Music.
On February 24, 1912,[1] Krehm was born in Toronto, Canada.[2] Her parents were modest Russian Jewish immigrants who had no background in music.[3] Krehm had one younger brother, journalist William Krehm,who had been a promising violinist in his youth. She had early ambitions not centred around music and liked doing school work and doing watercolour and drawing. Artistry was discouraged by Krehm's parents and she spent more time doing music.[2] When she turned seven years old,[2] she began playing the piano and went to study under Norah Drewett de Kresz, Ernest Farmer and Viggo Kihl as well as theory with Healey Willan at the Hambourg Conservatory.[1][3] Krehm also did heavy training in harmony following advice by Granville Bantock.[2]
Career
Upon first experiencing playing to a large audience, Krehm became further inclined to play music. From the ages of eleven to thirteen, she won each of the Canadian national competitions such as the Canadian National Exhibition three times (1923, 1924 and 1925) as well as the Ontario Musical Festival and the Welsh Eisteddfod in 1923 and 1924.[2] Krehm made her first public concert appearance at a newspaper contest at Bloor Street United Church in 1924,[4] and began teaching at age 13.[1] She became a resident of the United States in 1929,[5] moving to the Chicago Musical Institute to study under the Swiss conductor and pianist Rudolph Ganz.[3]
Krehm won three national accolades over the course of three weeks in 1937.[1][3] She earned the Schubert Memorial Award by making three appearances alongside the Philadelphia Orchestra, the cash prize of the National Federation of Music Clubs,[1] and the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation Award on her debut in New York City at The Town Hall in December 1937.[6] Krehm's professional debut in Canada came at the Hart House in the University of Toronto for the Women's Musical Club of Toronto on March 2, 1939.[1]
She went on to earn more recognition as an orchestral soloist and a recitalist in the Americas with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Guatemala National Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and in Europe with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Zurich Radio Orchestra.[1][7][8] Krehm was made Bloch's selected soloist for his Scherzo fantasque with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on December 2, 1950, and was the introducer of works by Jiri Antonin Benda, Norman Dello Joio, M.K. Čiurlionis, Rudolph Ganz, Carlos Surinach, Alexandre Tansman and Alexander Tcherepnin.[1]
In 1962, Krehm made her debut as a pianist-conductor in Hilversum, the Netherlands and went on to repeat this role with London's English Chamber Orchestra and Melos Ensemble and the CBC Symphony Orchestra in Toronto. She also performed this role in Berlin, Trondheim in Norway and at the 1976 Oriveto Festival. Krehm commissioned the 1977 Concertino by Srul Irving Glick she wrote for her to play on the keyboard. She recorded the works of various composers such as Robert Schumann, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Alexander Scriabin among others.[1]
