Norah Drewett de Kresz (14 June 1882 – 24 April 1960), born Norah Drewett, was an English-born pianist and music educator.

Early life

Norah Drewett was born in

Sutton, London Sutton is the principal town in the London Borough of Sutton in South London, England. It lies on the lower slopes of the North Downs, and is the administrative headquarters of the Outer London borough. It is south-south west of Charing Cross ...

in 1882. She studied piano under Alphonse Duvernoy at the Conservatoire de Paris, with composer Bernhard Stavenhagen in Münich, and 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 ...

in Berlin.

Career

Solo career

When Drewett played a Beethoven piano concerto at London's Crystal Palace in 1905, a reviewer described the performance as "neat in execution and intelligent in conception". "Miss Drewett has intelligence, vigour, and expressive power in a high degree," noted another reviewer that year, "in addition to which she has that which cannot be taught – genuine and infectious pleasure in her own playing." She played in Belfast, Vienna, and Berlin in 1908. She visited with writer

Ossip Schubin Aloisia Kirschner (17 June 1854 – 10 February 1934) was an Austrian novelist, born in Prague and favorably known under her pseudonym Ossip Schubin, which she borrowed from the novel ''Helena'' by Ivan Turgenev. Brought up on her parents' ...

during a stay in Germany in 1908. She played at the Proms in 1913. In 1922, Drewett wrote about the music scene in Berlin for ''Fanfare,'' a London-based periodical. In Canada, she played in a piano ensemble performance, with four male pianists ( Ernest Seitz, Viggo Kihl, Reginald Stewart, and Alberto Guerrero) in Edmonton in 1927. She also played at the debut performance of the

Conservatory String Quartet The Conservatory String Quartet (CSQ) was a Canadian string quartet in residence at The Royal Conservatory of Music during the first half of the 20th century. The group actively performed in the Toronto area and regularly toured throughout the Prov ...

in 1929.

With Géza de Kresz

Drewett was perhaps best known for her long professional association with her husband, Hungarian violinist Géza de Kresz. Russian musician

Boris Hambourg Boris Hambourg (russian: Борис Михайлович Гамбург; – 24 November 1954) was a Russian Canadian cellist who settled in Toronto, Ontario, and made his career in the United States, Canada, England and Europe. Early life ...

invited them to join him in Toronto in 1923, and teach at his conservatory and the Toronto Conservatory of Music. The Kreszes lived near Budapest while he was head of the National Conservatory there, from 1935 to 1947, and she taught there. They returned to North America after World War II, in 1947. "Norah Drewett and Geza de Kresz have probably been longer together without a break than any couple playing before the public today," noted an American newspaper in 1948. In 1949 they played together at New York's

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

Personal life

Norah Drewett married violinist Géza de Kresz in 1918. They had two daughters. Nora Drewett de Kresz was widowed when her husband died in 1959, and she died in Budapest in 1960, aged 77 years. Their graves are together, in Kápolnásnyék. There are scrapbooks and other papers related to the careers of Drewett and de Kresz on microfilm in the archives of the University of Toronto.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:de Kresz, Norah Drewett British classical pianists British women pianists 1882 births 1960 deaths British expatriates in Hungary