Grete Sultan (born Johanna Margarete Sultan) (June 21, 1906June 26, 2005) was a German-American

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

. Born in Berlin into a musical Jewish family, she studied piano from an early age with American pianist

Richard Buhlig Richard Moritz Buhlig (December 21, 1880 – January 30, 1952) was an American pianist. Buhlig was born in Chicago to a German immigrant father from Saxony, the baker Moritz Buhlig, and his wife Louise. He received early lessons from August Hy ...

, and later with

Leonid Kreutzer Leonid Kreutzer (13 March 1884 in St. Petersburg – 30 October 1953 in Tokyo) was a classical pianist. Life and career Kreutzer was born in St. Petersburg into a Jewish family. He studied composition under Alexander Glazunov and piano under Anna ...

and

Edwin Fischer Edwin Fischer (6 October 1886 – 24 January 1960) was a Swiss classical pianist and conductor. He is regarded as one of the great interpreters of J.S. Bach and Mozart in the twentieth century. Biography Fischer was born in Basel and studied ...

. In 1933, after the

nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

came to power in Germany, she was, as all

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

were, banned from playing in public and could only appear in concerts of the "Jüdischer Kulturbund" (Jewish Culture Association). With Buhlig's help, Sultan fled Germany in 1941 via

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, from where she emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

by ship. She settled in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and took up piano teaching, first at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

and the 92nd Street Y, then at the

Masters School The Masters School (colloquially known as Masters), is a private, coeducational boarding school and day college preparatory school located in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Its campus is located north of New York City in the Hudson Valley in Westc ...

Dobbs Ferry, New York Dobbs Ferry is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 10,875 according to the 2010 United States Census. In 2019, its population rose to an estimated 11,027. The village of Dobbs Ferry is located in, and is a p ...

. In the mid-1940s, she met the composer

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

and became good friends with him, and it was through Sultan that Cage met one of her students, Christian Wolff, who gave Cage his first copy of the ''

I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...

''—a book that shaped Cage's composition methods during the subsequent decades. Cage dedicated two pieces to Sultan. The first was part of his '' Music for Piano'' series, ''Music for Piano 53–68''. In 1974, when Sultan was in the process of learning Cage's ''

Music of Changes ''Music of Changes'' is a piece for solo piano by John Cage. Composed in 1951 for pianist and friend David Tudor, it is a ground-breaking piece of Indeterminacy (music), indeterminate music. The process of composition involved applying decisions m ...

'', the composer offered to write some new music for her, and the result was a monumental piano cycle, ''

Etudes Australes ''Etudes Australes'' is a set of etudes for piano solo by John Cage, composed in 1974–75 for Grete Sultan. It comprises 32 Indeterminacy (music), indeterminate pieces written using star charts as source material. The etudes, conceived as duets f ...

''.Kostelanets 2003, 91. Sultan made the premiere recording of the work and played it in concerts worldwide. She also performed the music of

Alan Hovhaness Alan Hovhaness (; March 8, 1911 – June 21, 2000) was an American-Armenian composer. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies (surviving manuscripts indicate over 70) and ...

and

Tui St. George Tucker Tui St. George Tucker (born Lorraine St. George Tucker; November 25, 1924 – April 21, 2004) was an American modernist composer, conductor, recorder virtuoso and creator of unique musical instruments. Her compositions often feature microtonality ...

, but contemporary composers were not the only ones that interested her: in the 1940s she helped popularize

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

's ''

Goldberg Variations The ''Goldberg Variations'', BWV 988, is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, it is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may also have ...

'', and her concert programs included music from

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

, Chopin, and

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

Earle Brown Earle Brown (December 26, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems. Brown was the creator of "open form," a style of musical construction that has influenced many composers since� ...

and

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School ...

. Grete Sultan gave her last recital in 1996, aged 90, at New York's

Merkin Concert Hall Merkin Hall is a 449-seat concert hall in Manhattan, New York City. The hall, named in honor of Hermann and Ursula Merkin, is part of the Kaufman Music Center, a complex that includes the Lucy Moses School, a community arts school, and the Spec ...

, performing Bach's ''Goldberg Variations''. She died in a Manhattan hospital five days after her 99th birthday. In spring 2012, Schott Music, Germany, published the first biography on Grete Sultan, titled "Rebellische Pianistin. Das Leben der Grete Sultan zwischen Berlin und New York", written by Hamburg-based author Moritz von Bredow.

Discography

* John Cage: Etudes Australes * "Grete Sultan - The Legacy, Vol. 1": Bach (''Goldberg-Variations''), Debussy, Schoenberg and Cage * "Grete Sultan - The Legacy, Vol. 2": Beethoven (''Diabelli Variations''), Copland, Wolpe, Hovhaness, Cage u.a. * Grete Sultan - Piano Seasons (1-Bach; 2-Beethoven; 3-Schubert/Schumann; 4-Schönberg/Copland/Weber/Wolpe/Hovhaness/Cage/Ichiyanagi)

References

* Bredow, Moritz von. 2012. "Rebellische Pianistin. Das Leben der Grete Sultan zwischen Berlin und New York." (Biography).

Schott Music Schott Music () is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe, and is the second oldest music publisher after Breitkopf & Härtel. The company headquarters of Schott Music were fou ...

, Mainz, Germany. * * * Kostelanetz, Richard. 2003. ''Conversing with John Cage''. New York: Routledge. * Revill, David. 1993. ''The Roaring Silence: John Cage – a Life''. Arcade Publishing. ,

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sultan, Grete American classical pianists American women classical pianists German classical pianists German women pianists American people of German-Jewish descent Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Vassar College faculty Jewish classical pianists Musicians from Berlin Musicians from New York City 1906 births 2005 deaths Contemporary classical music performers Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century German musicians 20th-century American pianists 20th-century American women pianists Classical musicians from New York (state) American women academics 20th-century German women 21st-century American women