Yella Pessl (originally Gabriella Elsa Pessl; January 5, 1906 – December 9, 1991
Bach Cantatas Website. Retrieved February 27, 2019.) was an American harpsichordist, pianist and organist.

Life

She was born in Vienna in 1906; she studied there at the State Academy of Music, and later performed in Europe."Yella Pessl, 85, Dies; Concert Keyboardist". '' The New York Times'', December 10, 1991. In 1931 she moved to the USA, and was resident in New York.

Percy A. Scholes Percy Alfred Scholes PhD OBE (24 July 1877 – 31 July 1958) (pronounced ''skolz'') was an English musician, journalist and prolific writer, whose best-known achievement was his compilation of the first edition of ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' ...

. "Pessl, Yella" in ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music''. OUP, 1964. She toured extensively, giving solo recitals and playing with orchestras. In 1938 she accompanied the Trapp Family Singers, whom she had known in Vienna, at their debut in New York at the Town Hall. Yella Pessl was an editor of music for the harpsichord, and wrote about music for the instrument. From 1938 she was a member of staff at Columbia University. She founded the Bach Circle, a group specializing in lesser-known works of J. S. Bach and his contemporaries. Her husband was Dr. Harry Sobotka, a biochemist; he died in 1970. Yella Pessl died in 1991, aged 85, at her home in

Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence and Leeds) was 29,571. Northampton is known as an acade ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pessl, Yella 1906 births 1991 deaths American harpsichordists 20th-century American pianists Musicians from Vienna 20th-century classical musicians Austrian emigrants to the United States