Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Can you trace your teacher-pupil genealogical tree?

I can. :p

I know it sounds impossible but it is possible:

- L.V.Beethoven (1770-1827) 57 g.


- C. Czerny (1791-1857) 66 g.


- F. Liszt (1811-1886) 75 g.


- A. Siloti (1863-1945) 82 g.


- K. Igumnov (1873-1948) 75 g.


BORIS ROMANOV (I visit his seminars and he is my teacher's husband.


- B. Davidovich (1928) 78 g.


- V. Postnikova (1944) 62 g.

my teacher LJUDMILA ROMANOVA studied with Postnikova (I THINK!)

so I am 8 generations from beethoven and 6 from liszt.

My one good teacher was a Frenchwoman who was at the Paris conservatory at the right time to have studied with Corot. Cortot had a tenuous connection with a pupil of Chopin. That's the best I can do.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Karl Czerny

Vasily Safonov

Josef Lhevinne

Rosina Lhevinne

Martin Canin

Arthur Greene

Dmitri Vorobiev

"PianoJerome"

But these links don't mean anything, do they?

Given the cliché that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, if any student in the chain did not strongly espouse the views of his teacher or was just not a particularly good student, what significant link is there between the current student and the "original" master?

Regards,

No, but they're nice ego-boosters.

Sam :

I like - and appreciate - your point of view. I'll also be the first to admit that there is absolutely nothing wrong with having one's ego boosted, once in a while!

Cheers!

When he was very young, my teacher had a few friendly composition lessons from Elgar, who was impressed with the boy's ability. It is a nice, true story but has no particular musical implication. I used to get tired of him going on about all his famous musical friends; it must have boosted his ego, I guess; it had little effect on me.

Beethoven, Czerny, Liszt, Krause, Arrau, Salas, Opus Maximus +D

i am still working on it, but so far i have:

Hans Schmidt
Ferruccio Busoni
Guido Agosti
Clifton Matthews
Lisa Kinzer
me

Beethoven
Czerny
Leszetycki
Schnabel
Claude Frank
Frank Weinstock, Bruce Murray, and Craig Sheppard
Stephen Brown, the great

Ludwig von Beethoven
Karl Czerny
Teodor Leszetycki
Artur Schnabel
Leon Fliescher
Julian Martin
Stephen Brown, the great

Beethoven
Czerny
Liszt
Conrad Ansorge
Eduard Erdmann
Paul Baumgartner
Arie Vardi
Stephen Brown, the great

People like Beethoven, Liszt, Czerny and all them taught lots of people in their lifetime, so the chances of your teacher tree dating back to them is quite high if you have a popular teacher, I guess. Ill have to ask mine and get back to you.

Yes--quite often it's possible since the very famous ones have their 'lineage' in their bios. My teacher in Honolulu studied with five students of Liszt as well as Joseph Hofmann, Mrs. Ferguson, etc. He compiled a 'Teacher Pedigree' that goes back to Binchois (19 generations) with Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, etc., as mentioned previously and is cross-indexed by number and alphabet. Since I studied with him (he had studied in New York for a long time before retiring to Honolulu where he maintained a private studio) he said I was entitled to it as well. He also gave me the right to copy it as it is copyrighted. And Mme. de Horvath's lineage is traceable as well since Gabrilowitsch, Friedman, and Safonoff were all three quite famous. So, in both cases the two most famous teachers of all time are prominent in the 'pedigree.' Liszt and Leschetizky--both students of Czerny--probably produced from their classes/studios the most prominent pianists of the early 1900's and quite a few at that!

I'm proud of it--as it does show a link. Whether one can show the ability of the teachers and absolute use of their knowledge and tradition is another story!

Yes it doesn't mean that much - especially since Liszt had so many 'students' that came basically to pay (play) homage to the master.


But here's mine

Beethoven
Czerny
Liszt
Krause
Arrau
Drury
Jimenez
jon-nyc

I studied with Arthur Greene, so same list as Pianojerome.

Plus I can go back to Matthay through Frank Mannheimer and John Perry/Constance Carroll.

I think everybody can do this, since the
pool of teachers in Europe in the early
days was originally quite small and so
all piano teachers are offshoots of this original
pool. Anyone in the US who had a teacher who went
to Julliard or studied with someone who did,
or studied with someone who studied with
someone who did, etc., which includes just
about everyone in the US, should be able
to immediately trace back to Beethoven,
at least.

Ludwig von Beethoven
Karl Czerny
Teodor Leszetycki
Artur Schnabel
Leon Fliescher
Nelita True
Suzanne W. Guy

then me!

This is my first teacher and current mentor:

Ludwig von Beethoven
Karl Czerny
Chopin
Georges Mathias
Isadore Phillpe
Virginia Klötzle Prescott
me

Virginia also studied with Godovski, Beveridge Webster, Leon Fleicher and others. Her mother, who was her first teacher, studied with Carl Reineke in Leipzig.

One of my other teachers studied with Veronica Joachim, but I don't know the lineage here, and another teacher of mine studied with Anthony di bonaventura, which I don't know either.

John

I have a few lines to explore from the various teacher I've had, but I'm stuck at this stage with tracing them further back. Here are the starting points - as you can see I am now trying to get back beyond Marjorie Clementi (who I think may have been taught by Gordon Green!) and Gordon Green, a RAM and RNCM teacher of note, who seems to crop up in most of my pedagogic ancestries...

1.
Maurice Ravel
Vlado Perlemuter
Robert Bell
Alice Rosser
matthewpiano

2.
(Gordon Green?)
Marjorie Clementi
matthewpiano

3.
Gordon Green
Katrina George
matthewpiano

4.
Gordon GReen
Christopher Elton
Andrew West
matthewpiano

If I'm not mistaken (and I know some of you might not believe me, too bad for you) my teacher taught Beethoven a few tricks some years ago. SHould have a picture of it somewhere but seems I have misplaced it.