Eduard Steuermann

Eduard Steuermann (June 18, 1892 in Sambir, Poland (now part of Ukraine) – November 11, 1964 in New York City) was a Polish-born Austrian (and later American) pianist and composer. Steuermann married Clara Silvers, a pianist and noted music librarian, in 1949. [ [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/music/eadxmlmusic/eadpdfmusic/mu004007_x.pdf Edward and Clara Steuermann Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress] ]

Steuermann studied piano with Vilém Kurz in Lemberg and Ferruccio Busoni in Berlin. He studied composition with Engelbert Humperdinck and Arnold Schoenberg, [From abstract of Edward and Clara Steuermann Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress] played the piano part in the first performance of Schoenberg's "Pierrot lunaire", and premiered his Piano Concerto. He continued his association with Schoenberg as a pianist for the composer's Society for Private Musical Performances in Vienna, and made a transcription for piano trio of Schoenberg's "Verklärte Nacht". In 1952 he was awarded the ISCM's Schoenberg Medal. He also taught in the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik at Darmstadt.

In the USA, where he emigrated in 1938, [From abstract of Edward and Clara Steuermann Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress] he was famed for his Beethoven recitals of the 1950s and was a distinguished teacher, teaching at the Juilliard School from 1952 to 1964. [From abstract of Edward and Clara Steuermann Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress] In America he was known as Edward Steuermann. Among the prominent performers who studied with Steuermann are Alfred Brendel, Jakob Gimpel, Avraham Sternklar and Russell Sherman.

In 1989, The University of Nebraska Press published a collection of Steuermann's writings entitled, "The Not Quite Innocent Bystander: Writings of Edward Steuermann". The book was co-edited by Clara Steuermann, David H. Porter and Gunther Schuller.

Footnotes