Tina Lerner

Tina Lerner (June 5, 1889 — died after 1947; in Cyrillic, Тина Лернер) was a Russian-American concert pianist born in Odessa.

Tina Lerner, from the cover of a 1908 publication.

Early life

Valentina Osipovna Lerner was the daughter of Yiddish writers Osip Mikhailovich Lerner and Mariam Rabinovitch. She showed musical promise from an early age, in her birthplace, Odessa. She studied at Moscow Conservatory and with Leopold Godowsky, and began performing while still a teenager.[1]

Career

Lerner performed in Germany[2] and England before she toured North America in 1908 and 1909, performing with orchestras in major cities,[1] starting in New York with a concert at Carnegie Hall.[3][4]

She returned to perform in London in 1912,[5] before embarking on her third American tour (1912-1913).[6] "An audience that represented the wealth and culture of San Francisco went into ecstasies of delight over her remarkable playing of the Tschaikowski Concerto," according to the San Francisco Orchestra's manager, Frank W. Healy.[7] Her fifth American tour commenced in 1917.[8] She toured in South America in 1922.[9]

In 1917, she was one of the first pianists to give a concert over a radio telephone, when she played aboard a steamship in the Pacific Ocean in a concert that was transmitted to other steamships between San Francisco and Honolulu, on the occasion of George Washington's birthday.[10][11]

Her performances of works by Chopin and Tchaikovsky were captured on piano rolls.[12][13] She lived in Syracuse, New York in the 1920s, and taught piano master classes at Syracuse University.[14] Shavitch and Lerner gave a concert together at the Hollywood Bowl in 1927.[15]

Personal life

Tina Lerner married twice, both times to musicians.[16][17] She married Luis Bachner in 1909 and divorced him in 1915.[18] She married conductor Vladimir Shavitch in 1915, a few days after her first marriage was officially ended.[19][20] The Shavitches had a daughter, Dollina, born in 1916.[21][22]

Tina Lerner was widowed when Vladimir Shavitch died in 1947;[23] she was living in Florence, Italy, with their daughter by then.[24][25] Tina Lerner's grave is in the Cimitero Monumentale della Misericordia at Antella, near Florence.[26]

References
  1. "Tina Lerner, a Gifted Pianist" Musical Courier (November 4, 1908): 16.
  2. "Tina Lerner's Success" Musical Courier (September 30, 1908): 26.
  3. "Reflections by the Editor" Musical Courier (November 18, 1908): 21.
  4. "New York Opinions of Tina Lerner" Musical Courier (December 2, 1908): 17.
  5. "Tina Lerner" Music News (November 1, 1912): 23.
  6. "Tina Lerner" Music News (November 22, 1912): 10.
  7. "Tina Lerner Arouses Furore" Music News (December 6, 1912): 23.
  8. "Tina Lerner to Make Fifth American Tour" Musical Courier (June 7, 1917): 18.
  9. "Tina Lerner in Uruguay" Pacific Coast Musical Review (February 18, 1922): 1.
  10. "Tina Lerner's Music Sent Over Sea by Radio Telephone" Musical Courier (April 12, 1917): 60.
  11. "Tina Lerner in Unique Feat" Musical America (April 14, 1917): 45.
  12. Harold C. Schonberg, "Player Piano Nights: Masters Return" New York Times (July 16, 1982).
  13. Joe M. Morris Piano Roll Collection, UNT Music Library.
  14. Linda P. Kaiser, Pulling Strings: The Legacy of Melville A. Clark (Syracuse University Press 2010): 170, note 2. ISBN 9780815651161
  15. Edwin Schallert, "Lerner and Shavitch Approved" Los Angeles Times (July 25, 1927): A7.
  16. "Russian Pianist Tina Lerner, 1918" Charles "Tiny" Burnett photograph collection, University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections Division.
  17. "Tina Lerner Takes Honolulu by Storm" Musical Courier (March 20, 1917): 43.
  18. "Tina Lerner Sues for Divorce" New York Times (November 16, 1915): 14.
  19. "Pianist Marries Manager" Sacramento Union (November 21, 1915): 9. via California Digital Newspapers Collection
  20. "Tina Lerner Weds" Washington Post (November 21, 1915): 18.
  21. "Tina Lerner's Daughter Showing Influence of Musical Heredity" Musical America (February 10, 1917): 17.
  22. "Tina Lerner, Pianist, Has Interesting Hobbies" Los Angeles Times (June 9, 1918): III23.
  23. "Vladimir Shavitch" Washington Post (December 27, 1947): B2.
  24. "Shavitch Funeral Set for Monday" Palm Beach Post (January 3, 1948). via Newspapers.com
  25. "Former Dollina Shavitch Visits Syracuse" Syracuse Herald-Journal (July 31, 1939): 13. via Newspapers.com
  26. "Personaggi Famosi Sepolti Alla Misericordia di Antella" VisitCemetery.
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