Eugene Istomin has a well-deserved place among the great American pianists of this past century and was renowned for his artistry in recitals, chamber music and orchestral solos. Born on November 11, 1925 in New York City to Russian parents who were both professional singers, Mr. Istomin displayed great musical ability as a child. At age six he began to study with noted Russian pianist Alexander Siloti, and at age twelve he entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying with Rudolph Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horzowski.
At age seventeen, Mr. Istomin won two major piano competitions: the Philadelphia Orchestra Youth Awards, which included a performance of the orchestra directed by Eugene Ormandy, and the Leventritt Award, which included an appearance with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. In 1950, at age twenty-five, Mr. Istomin was the youngest to perform at the first Prades Festival (founded by Pablo Casals), and he thereafter went on to give over 4,000 concerts and recitals around the world.
During a career lasting over half a century, Mr. Istomin performed with the world’s leading orchestras under the direction of many prominent conductors, such as Bruno Walter, Fritz Reiner, George Szell, Charles Munch, Dimitri Mitropolous, Eugene Ormandy, and Leonard Bernstein. Among the eminent composers who wrote for and dedicated works to him were Henri Dutilleux, Roger Sessions, and Ned Rorem. In addition to his career as a soloist, Mr. Istomin was acclaimed for his work with the Istomin-Stern-Rose Trio, which was formed in 1961 with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose and lasted for 23 years.
Mr. Istomin made numerous recordings over his career, beginning in 1945, when he recorded the Bach D minor Keyboard Concerto with the Busch Chamber Players. The recordings of the Istomin-Stern-Rose Trio covered a large repertoire of the chamber music literature and were considered important for its display of artistry and technique of ensemble playing. In 1970, the Trio won a Grammy Award for its recording of Beethoven’s complete piano trios. As late as 2001, Mr. Istomin made the world premiere recording of Paul Paray's Fantaisie for piano and orchestra, with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra under Jean-Bernard Pommier.
Mr. Istomin married Marta Casals in 1975, and they settled in Washington, DC, in 1980. From 1985 to 1987, Mr. Istomin was Director of the University of Maryland piano festival, and he led the effort to rename the festival after the pianist William Kapell, who had died in a plane crash in 1953. Beginning in 1988 and lasting for eight consecutive years, Mr. Istomin went on ”barnstorming” recital tours of small cities and towns across the United States several months each year, travelling in a specially fitted truck with his own two pianos and a piano tuner. Between 2001 and 2003, he was the creator and host of a four-part series “Great Conversations in Music,” commissioned by the Library of Congress and later shown on Public Television Stations.
Beginning with President Eisenhower’s administration and continuing into the 1980s, Mr. Istomin served as a cultural ambassador in many parts of the world in times of significant world events, including performing on three important occasions at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. He received the French Légion d’Honneur in 2001. In addition to his music, Mr. Istomin had many other interests, including visual arts, literature, history, and sports, particularly baseball. Mr. Istomin died on October 10, 2003 in Washington D. C.
