Leopold Godowsky

Leopold [Leonid] Godowsky
(b Soshly, nr Vilnius, 13 Feb 1870; d New York, 21 Nov 1938). American pianist and composer of Polish birth.

Following the death of his father, he exhibited a precocious aptitude for music under the guidance of foster-parents in Vilnius. By the age of five he had already started to compose, as well as being proficient on both piano and violin. He gave his first piano recital when he was nine and subsequently toured throughout Lithuania and East Prussia. After studying briefly with Ernst Rudorff at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik he left for America, where he made his first appearance, in Boston, in 1884. In 1885 he appeared in a series of concerts at the New York Casino, and the following year toured the north-eastern USA and Canada with the violinist Ovide Musin. From 1887 to 1890 he was a protégé of Saint-Saëns in Paris, supporting himself by playing in fashionable salons both there and in London. On his return to the USA in 1890 he joined the staff of the New York College of Music, and later held teaching posts in Philadelphia and Chicago. During the 1890s he formulated his theories regarding the application of relaxed weight and economy of motion in piano playing; he also started to make concert arrangements of other composers' works, including the first of his studies on the études of Chopin.