Rosalyn Tureck

Rosalyn Tureck (December 14, 1914 – July 17, 2003) was an American pianist and harpsichordist who was particularly associated with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. She was born in Chicago, Illinois.

Tureck did not play only Bach, but had a wide-ranging repertoire which included works by composers including Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, and Frédéric Chopin, as well as more modern composers such as David Diamond, Luigi Dallapiccola, and William Schuman. Diamond's Piano Sonata No. 1 was inspired by Tureck's playing.

Tureck studied at the Juilliard School of music, where one of her teachers was Leon Theremin. She continued her studies in Chicago with pianist and harpsichordist Gavin Williamson. Later in her career, Tureck joined the faculty at the Juilliard School. She made her debut at Carnegie Hall playing the theremin, an electronic instrument.

For a while she followed Wanda Landowska in playing Bach's keyboard music on a harpsichord, but later returned to playing the piano. In 1970, Tureck performed in Boston for the Peabody Mason Concert series.^[1] She was an honorary fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford.

In a CBC radio special on Glenn Gould,^[2][3] the host told Tureck that Gould cited her as his "only" influence. She responded by saying she knew that she was an influence, and that it was very kind of him to say so.

She died in New York in 2003 at age 88. Her scores and recordings were given to the Music Division and the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, both divisions of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

External links

• Tureck Bach Research Institute
• On Tureck and Gould
• Recording of Tureck Playing Bach

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