Gisella Grosz, originally ''Gizella Grosz'' (26 November 1875, Szilágysomlyó,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

– 1942, Riga Ghetto,

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

) was a Hungarian classical pianist. Grosz was born into a Jewish family in Szilágysomlyó, then

, today Șimleu Silvaniei,

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. She studied piano at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music in Budapest with

István Thomán István Thomán (; 4 November 186222 September 1940) was a Hungarian piano virtuoso and music educator. He was a notable piano teacher, with students including Béla Bartók, Ernő Dohnányi, Paul de Marky who later taught Oscar Peterson in Quebe ...

. In 1897 she gave her first concerts in Budapest and in 1898 and 1899 in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

with good success.''Musikalisches Wochenblatt'', Leipzig, 28 Apr 1898, vol 38, no. 18, p. 266 From 1898 on she lived in Berlin, where she studied with Teresa Carreño. She performed as a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1902, 1905, 1908 and 1909.

Peter Muck Peter Muck (22 August 1919 – 10 April 2011) was a German violinist and violist. Life Born in Leipzig, Muck, violinist and violist, was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic The Berlin Philharmonic (german: Berliner Philharmoniker, links=no, ...

: ''Einhundert Jahre Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester'', Tutzing, Schneider, 1982 On February 6, 1906 she was one of the first female pianists to record for Welte-Mignon.Gerhard Dangel and Hans-W. Schmitz: '' Welte-Mignon Reproductions. Complete Library Of Recordings For The Welte-Mignon Reproducing Piano 1905–1932''. Stuttgart 2006. . p. 446 In 1911, she retired from her concert career to marry Adolf Weissmann (1873–1929), a well known Berlin music critic and author of biographies of Bizet, Chopin, Verdi, and Puccini. Grosz continued as a teacher of the piano and hosted frequent musicales into the 1920s, until her husband's untimely death in 1929. She was listed in Berlin telephone directories from 1937 to 1940 as Gisella Weissmann (Weißmann). In 1940 the statutory Jewish middle name ''Sara'' was added to her listing, and in 1941 Jews were omitted altogether. In January 1942 she was deported to Riga, Latvia, and died there in that year. Grosz and Weissmann had in 1908 a child born out of wedlock, Ilse. The daughter became a pianist too, taught mainly by her mother in Berlin and Konrad Wolff in Paris. From 1933 on Ilse Weissmann lived in France, England and Italy and finally emigrated to the US, where she died in 2000.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grosz, Gisella 1875 births 1942 deaths People from Șimleu Silvaniei Hungarian Jews who died in the Holocaust Hungarian classical pianists Hungarian women classical pianists Jewish classical pianists People who died in the Riga Ghetto Hungarian civilians killed in World War II 20th-century women pianists

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