Adele Marcus
Adele Marcus was an American pianist and instructor whose career was based at the Juilliard School in New York City.Life and career
Marcus was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the youngest of 13 children of a rabbi and his wife, who were of Russian descent. She studied under Josef Lhévinne and Artur Schnabel in New York City. After winning the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation Award in 1928, she made a series of solo recital debuts in Chicago, San Francisco and New York City. Of her New York debut in 1929, The New York Times wrote: "Last night she displayed distinguished gifts both as a technician and an interpreter."
Marcus taught on the faculty of the Juilliard School in New York City from 1954 to 1990. She also gave master classes in piano performance at other conservatories, including the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago during the 1970s, in collaboration with William Browning, also a teacher of great repute.
Marcus's performances included a Carnegie Hall recital on January 25, 1949, in which she played Scarlatti, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky and Chopin.
Her students included: Edward Aldwell, Agustin Anievas, Louise Barfield, Tzimon Barto, Jeffrey Biegel, Enrique Bátiz, David Brunell, Anthony Byrne, Sergio Calligaris, José Carlos Cocarelli, Cy Coleman, Stewart L. Gordon, Steven Graff, Horacio Gutiérrez, Stephen Hough, Byron Janis, Soonja Kim, Norman Krieger, Daniel Lessner, Panayis Lyras, Diana McIntosh, Beata Moon, Pascal Nemirovski, Ken Noda, Jon Kimura Parker, Momoro Ono, Peter Orth, Santiago Rodriguez, Jordan Rudess, Neil Sedaka, Jeffrey Swann, Emma Tahmizian, Jennifer Hayghe, Steven Heyman, Ezequiel Viñao and Lev Weitzelski.
Adele Marcus died on May 3, 1995 at her home in Manhattan, aged 89. In 2008, the Juilliard School established the Adele Marcus Piano Scholarship in her honor.
