Lili Kraus :

Abstract

Lili Kraus has earned the distinction as one of the preeminent piano performers and pedagogues of the twentieth century. She has been the subject of numerous interviews, made many recordings, served as artist-in-residence at Texas Christian University from 1967 to 1983, and enjoyed a distinguished performing career spanning more than six decades. Yet, no thorough study has been made of her life and work. This deficiency will hopefully be remedied by this study.

The first task was to review the related literature, including published interviews with Kraus, articles about her, and concert and record reviews. This literature review constitutes the second chapter. Chapter Three is devoted to a survey of Kraus's life and career; among the topics covered are her childhood, her education and study with Bartok, Steuermann, and Schnabel, her marriage and family life, the concentration-camp experience, her public and recorded performing career, and her teaching positions. Chapter Four examines both the reviews of Kraus's performances and also her interpretive ideas. Her technical system is discussed in Chapter Five. Attention in Chapter Six turns to Kraus's pedagogical activities, focusing especially on the distinguishing tactics and strategems employed in her teaching as viewed from her own perspective and that of her former students and colleagues. A Summary concludes the study by providing a concise and cogent overview of Kraus's life, musicianship, and pedagogical pursuits. Important sources of information were interviews with Kraus and with a number of people who have known her professionally and/or personally, returned questionnaires from her former students and colleagues, a journal of notes supplied by her former teaching assistant, Kraus's recordings, reviews of her work, and published articles about her life and career.