Eugenia Argiewicz (16 June 1887 – March 1969), later Eugenia Argiewicz Bem, was a Polish violinist based in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

for much of her career.

Early life

Eugenia Argiewicz was born in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. Her father sold military uniforms. She started studying music as a small child, and trained with violinist

Eugène Ysaÿe Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe (; 16 July 185812 May 1931) was a Belgian virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tsar". Legend of the Ysaÿe violin Eugène Ysaÿe ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. Her brother Artur Argiewicz was also a noted violinist, and they sometimes performed together. Artur and their mother also moved to San Francisco. Another brother, Bernard, was a professional cellist based in Detroit and Philadelphia.

Career

Argiewicz performed in major European cities as a girl. She moved to the United States in the 1910s. She was a soloist with the Seattle Symphony, In 1917 she accompanied British cellist

May Mukle May Henrietta Mukle FRAM (14 May 1880 – 20 February 1963) was a British cellist and composer. She has been described as a "noted feminist cellist", who encouraged other women cellists. Early life Mukle was born in London, the daughter of Leo ...

when she performed in Sacramento, and in the 1924–1925 season she played violin in the

San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San Fr ...

. "Mme. Bem is intense and emotional," commented one Los Angeles reviewer in 1918, "but plays with a musicianly manner and her style is fresh and invigorating." Argiewicz and her husband led the Stanislas Bem Little Orchestra, which performed at San Francisco's Whitcomb Hotel; they were among the first musicians to perform on KFRC radio when it began broadcasting in 1924, from the roof of the same hotel. They also played in a chamber trio with pianist Vladimir Shavitch, until she was replaced in 1918. She also played

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...

music.

Personal life

Eugenia Argiewicz married cellist Stanisław Bem in 1915, in San Francisco. They had a daughter, Vanda (1920-2008), who became a concert pianist and music educator. Eugenia Argiewicz Bem was widowed in 1956, and died in 1969, in San Francisco, aged 82 years. Her granddaughter Gail Colman married San Francisco-based Spanish graphic artist Victor Moscoso. Eugenia Bem's great-grandson Justin "Justo" Moscoso ran for a seat in Congress in 2000, as the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

candidate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Argiewicz, Eugenia 1887 births 1969 deaths Musicians from Warsaw Polish violinists Women violinists Congress Poland emigrants to the United States