Wladimir Horbowski-Zaranek (19 January 1905 — 28 February 1989) was a Russian Empire-born German pianist and music educator.

Career

Horbowski-Zaranek (known in Germany simply as Vladimir Horbowski) was born in Tbilisi into a family of Polish and Ukrainian-Georgian nobles who left Russia and went into exile in Brussels in 1921 after the October Revolution. After studying at the

Royal Conservatory of Brussels The Royal Conservatory of Brussels (french: Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, nl, Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel) is a historic conservatory in Brussels, Belgium. Starting its activities in 1813, it received its official name in 1832. Provid ...

, he moved to Berlin, and was a pupil and assistant of

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 ...

. He was part of the circle of

Ferruccio Busoni Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary ...

, which included Rachmaninoff. He later explained that he owed his most lasting artistic inspiration to these people. A highly gifted pianist in his youth, an accident denied Horbowski a career as a concert pianist, and he turned to the educational work. After Kreutzer was driven from his teaching post by the Nazi government in 1933 and emigrated to Japan, Horbowski took over the piano class at the Berlin Conservatory. From 1934 to 1945 Horbowski also headed piano classes at the Berlin Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory. He developed a teaching method that inspired his students to focus on learning the work by heart, and to concentrate primarily on phrasing, dynamics, pedaling and accurate attention to the score. He also pioneered a kind of finger movements which allowed to play complex pieces with lesser technical effort. After World War II, Horbowski took a position as professor of piano at the in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

. He taught material from Bartok's Mikrokosmos to concert literature. Pianists from around the world came to Stuttgart, to learn under his guidance the art of piano playing from a different angle. Numerous students won international competitions and awards, are known as concert pianists and are teaching at conservatories and music schools. Horbowskis served several times on the jury of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels, one of the world's most important music competitions. After his retirement, Horbowski moved to Munich, where he served as a teacher and adviser to many pianists. He died at the age of 85 after a long illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horbowski, Vladimir 1905 births 1989 deaths German pianists 20th-century pianists 20th-century German composers Academic staff of the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart White Russian emigrants to Germany