![Martin Canin (1981)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Martin_Canin_%281981%29.jpg)
Martin Canin (March 23, 1930–May 9, 2019) was an American pianist and prominent piano pedagogue who was on the faculty of The
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...
from 1976 to 2016 and of
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...
from 1965 to 1993.
Canin was born 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 was a graduate of Juilliard, where he studied under the eminent piano pedagogue
Rosina Lhévinne
Rosina Lhévinne (née Bessie; March 29, 1880 – November 9, 1976) was a Russian pianist and famed pedagogue born in Kyiv, Russian Empire.
Early life, education and family
Rosina Bessie was the younger of two daughters of Maria (née Katz) and ...
, who along with her husband
Josef Lhévinne
Josef Lhévinne (13 December 18742 December 1944) was a Russian pianist and piano teacher. Lhévinne wrote a short book in 1924 that is considered a classic: ''Basic Principles in Pianoforte Playing''. Asked how to say his name, he told ''The Li ...
was part of a long lineage of Russian pianists and teachers. Canin began piano studies at age 7 as a scholarship student at the
Henry Street Settlement
The Henry Street Settlement is a not-for-profit social service agency in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City that provides social services, arts programs and health care services to New Yorkers of all ages. It was founde ...
, on New York's Lower East Side, studying first with
Aurelio Giorni
Aurelio Carlo Pietro Teodoro Giorni (15 September 1895 – 23 September 1938) was an Italian-American pianist and composer. After immigrating to the United States in 1914, he toured the nation as a soloist and with the Elshuco Trio. He composed ...
and later for a decade with Austrian-born pianist, composer, and conductor
Robert Scholz
Robert Scholz (23 April 1886 – 10 October 1927) was a German film actor of the silent era. He appeared in 76 films between 1919 and 1928. He was born in Germany and died in Berlin.
Selected filmography
* ''A Drive into the Blue'' (1919) ...
, as well as attending summer-school programs at the
Meadowmount School of Music. Canin studied also with the noted pianist, pedagogue, and critic
Olga Samaroff
Olga Samaroff (August 8, 1880May 17, 1948) was an American pianist, music critic, and teacher. Among her teachers was Charles-Valentin Alkan's son, Élie-Miriam Delaborde. Her second husband was the conductor Leopold Stokowski.
Samaroff was ...
at the Philadelphia Conservatory before entering The Juilliard School.
Early performances
Martin Canin began his career as a piano recitalist; in
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
,
Harold Schonberg
Harold Charles Schonberg (29 November 1915 – 26 July 2003) was an American music critic and author. He is best known for his contributions in ''The New York Times'', where he was chief music critic from 1960 to 1980. In 1971, he became the fi ...
wrote of one concert in 1960 that “Mr. Canin equaled the achievement of any American pianist this reviewer has heard,” and critic and composer
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassic ...
wrote of Canin's performance in 1949, of the
Brahms D Minor Concerto, Op. 15, with the Juilliard Orchestra, that “piano playing so beautiful from every point of view is rare. He is a musician clean through.” Of Canin's debut recital at Carnegie Recital Hall (now
Weill Recital Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by ...
) in 1958, New York Times critic
Edward Downes
Sir Edward Thomas ("Ted") Downes, CBE (17 June 1924 – 10 July 2009) was an English conductor, specialising in opera.
He was associated with the Royal Opera House from 1952, and with Opera Australia from 1970. He was also well known for his ...
wrote, “Only a thoughtful musician would have chosen to include the enormously demanding Sonata of
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer. One of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century, he combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra- ...
, dating from 1946, on a debut program. Only an expert technician could have carried it off with such clarity, authority and even brio.” Downes concluded, "In
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 ...
's
'Wanderer' Fantasy, the pianist showed he not only had a sense of drama, but also musical depth and consistent beauty of tone at his command. This was a distinguished debut."
Teaching career
Although Canin performed in Europe, Asia, and Australia, teaching rather than concertizing became the focus of his professional career. Having graduated from The Juilliard School in 1956, he became an assistant to Rosina Lhévinne there in 1959 and also taught during that period at
Teachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), is the graduate school of education, health, and psychology of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, it has served as one of the official faculties and ...
. He was appointed to the Juilliard faculty in 1976. In 1965, he additionally joined the faculty of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, now known as
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...
, as Artist-in-Residence, and he retired from that position in 1993. He also taught at the
Bowdoin International Music Festival
The Bowdoin International Music Festival is an annual summer music school and concert series that takes place in Brunswick, Maine. Founded in 1964 as a program of Bowdoin College, it has operated as an independent nonprofit organization since 19 ...
from 1972 to 2015. Other teaching appointments, in parallel with those at Juilliard and Stony Brook, included the
City University of New York
The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
and
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
.
As the inheritor of a tradition representing the
golden age of Romantic piano virtuosos, Canin extolled the image of the solo pianist, saying in a 1981 interview, “Of course I love chamber music—I love to play it; I love to hear it. But I feel something goes out of our lives if we lose the sense of the single conquering hero on stage. I love the idea that ''one person'' gets up there with the Steinway and takes it on—and vanquishes it. And that one person can give us an inspiring evening of music. To me, I feel that the most exciting thing of all is the soloist.”
Among his hundreds of students at Juilliard and Stony Brook, Canin taught numerous laureates of major international piano competitions, including the Busoni, Van Cliburn, Liszt-Bartók, Casadesus, Kapell, Tokyo International, Seoul International, and Queen Elisabeth of Belgium competitions. Canin gave recitals and master classes throughout the world and served on the jury of numerous piano competitions. In addition to his teaching and performances as a solo pianist and chamber musician, he recorded works of
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...
for Spectrum Records, served as a contributing editor of the magazine ''The Piano Quarterly'', and edited a number of piano works for
Éditions Salabert and Lee Roberts Publications. Among his prominent disciples are
Sean Botkin,
Joel Fan,
Madeleine Forte,
Arthur Greene
Arthur Greene is an American pianist and educator.
Career
Greene won gold medals at both the 1978 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition and the William Kapell International Piano Competition. ''The Washington Post' wrote "For 99 ou ...
,
Stephen Hough
Sir Stephen Andrew Gill Hough (; born 22 November 1961) is a British-born classical pianist, composer and writer. He became an Australian citizen in 2005 and thus has dual nationality (his father was born in Australia in 1926).
Biography
Houg ...
,
Douglas Humpherys,
Min Kwon
Min Kwon (born Kwon, Min-Kyung) is a Korean-American pianist, a Professor of Piano at the Mason Gross School of the Arts (Rutgers University in New Jersey).
Background
Min Kwon began playing the piano at the age of three under the tutelage of h ...
,
Mihae Lee,
Quynh Nguyen
Quynh Nguyen ( vi, Nguyễn Thuý Quỳnh) is a Vietnamese-American classical pianist based in New York City. She has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, to wide critical acclaim. For her Carnegie Recital Hall d ...
,
Haewon Song,
Annette Volkamer,
Dalit Warshaw
Dalit Hadass Warshaw (born August 6, 1974) is a New York-based composer, pianist, thereminist. Previously on the composition and music theory faculty of Boston Conservatory, she currently serves on the composition faculty at Juilliard and CUNY- Br ...
,
Yung Wook Yoo
Yung Wook Yoo (born December 27, 1977) is a South Korean pianist, winner of the Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition.
Biography
Born in Seoul on December 27, 1977, Yoo started studying piano in South Korea and then moved to ...
, and
Terence Yung.
Personal life
Along with Martin Canin's association with The Juilliard School as a teacher, that music conservatory also exemplified something of a family tradition. His brother, violinist
Stuart Canin
Stuart Canin (born 1926 in New York City) is an American violinist and conductor. On December 30, 1936, at the age of 10, he performed on the Fred Allen radio hour.Alex Walsh, "STUART CANIN: "...An Excellent Violinist." — Harry Truman," Dec. 10, ...
, had studied at the school. In 1963, Martin Canin married Fiorella Miotto, also a Juilliard-trained pianist, with whom he had one daughter, violinis
Serena Caninof the
Brentano String Quartet
The Brentano Quartet is an American string quartet.
History
Founded in 1992 at the Juilliard School, the quartet's founding members were violinists Mark Steinberg and Serena Canin, violist Misha Amory, and cellist Michael Kannen. At the suggesti ...
, herself a Juilliard graduate. Martin Canin died in New York on May 9, 2019 at the age of 89.
Further reading and listening
* Martin Canin performing Johannes Brahms, Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5
YouTube
* “For the Love of Music,” WNCN-FM, New York, NY (March 20, 1981). David Dubal interviews Martin Canin
Program 1 of 2, YouTubeProgram 2 of 2, YouTube
* “Interview with Martin Canin” (November 3, 1991)
Lower East Side Oral History Collection and Tamiment Library New York University.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canin, Martin
Musicians from New York City
Juilliard School alumni
Teachers College, Columbia University faculty
Stony Brook University faculty
American male pianists
21st-century American pianists
21st-century American male musicians
1930 births
2019 deaths