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sai-national.org • Summer 2024 21 concerts in 1934, she received $75,000, the same amount as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's salary! Starting at six each morning, Ruth was made to practice nine hours a day, seven days a week. In the beginning, her father slapped her across the face when she made mistakes; later he beat her with his belt. He also abused her verbally. Aptly titled, the autobiography describes her childhood—certainly not normal: she had tutors but didn't play with friends, see movies, or even have a doll. Although he had sufficient financial means, Slenczynski was a tightwad and connived to find his daughter piano teachers without paying for lessons. Besides Rachmaninoff, Ruth also was coached by famous pianists Alfred Cortot, Arthur Schnabel, and Egon Petri. Josef kept all of Ruth's concert income and used it for his own purposes. Mean-spirited, he took away almost all of her admirers' gis, selling them to line his pockets. Dressed to the nines, he was egotistical and pigheaded, deluded about his own self-importance, and he always blamed Ruth for his mistakes, his poor judgment, and even his diabetes. Yet for a long time, in spite of such monstrous, tyrannical behavior on his part, Ruth continued wanting to please her father so that she could have her music. Fortunately, she gradually lost faith in him and began to think for herself. Eventually, the two became and remained estranged. Ruth stopped giving concerts when she was fieen. Her father refused to use his daughter's earnings to pay for her to attend college, so she had to get jobs to cover expenses. In 1944, she eloped and married George Born—soon more interested in her as a pianist than as a wife. Taunting her and campaigning that she resume a concert career, her husband soon took over her father's previous obnoxious role. Miraculously, one day on a concert tour, Ruth found her own true calling: reaching others through her music! Eventually, the long-term mental burdens of her first two decades lied, and she only looked forward. For the past seven decades, her life has been normal. She indeed rose above her childhood mistreatment; the qualities that characterize her are loving-kindness, joy, generosity, enthusiasm, optimism, and genuine humility. In 1951, Gastone Usigli (Music Director of the Bach Festival in Carmel, California) invited Ruth to perform. Because of her success, she was able to quit her teaching job at the Convent of Our Lady of Mercy, an exclusive college for young ladies near San Francisco, and started earning enough income by concertizing again. In four tour seasons, she performed over 300 times as soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra under the baton of Arthur Fiedler. On May 30, 1956, she was featured in the television program is Is Your Life. A photo from this program includes Ruth, her mother, her two sisters, Usigli, Fiedler, Mischa Elman, and host Ralph Edwards. From 1964-2002, Ruth Slenczynska was Artist-in-Residence (and later Emerita Professor) at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE). One of her students, Stan Ford, a fine concert pianist himself who teaches at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, wrote: "Quite literally, I incorporate everything I have learned from her into my own teaching, everything." On the SIUE campus, Ruth met Dr. James Kerr, a political science professor. She has a twinkle in her eye when she recalls their courtship; they were happily married for almost four decades and enjoyed cooking together. Written while on airplanes during concert tours, her popular method book, Music at Your Fingertips: Aspects of Pianoforte Technique (Da Capo Press, 1961), is still available. roughout the years, she also wrote articles for music publications and continued to record for the American Decca, Musical Heritage Society, Ivory Classics, and Liu MAER labels. Aer her second husband passed on, Ruth took on a new challenge — the Artist-in-Residence teaching position at Soochow University in Taipei, Taiwan. Later, she taught and performed in Japan where she developed a close friendship with Empress Michiko; they even played piano duets. Years earlier she did the same thing with President Harry Truman in the White House! Since 1984, erese Zoski Dickman, Fine Arts Librarian and Associate Professor at SIUE, has curated the Ruth Slenczynska Collection, which is stored in the basement of Lovejoy Library. To access materials (such as recordings, correspondence, photographs, publications, and programs), contact her and make a research appointment. She will bring upstairs those requested items for viewing. It is also possible to see related digitized files. Dickman has created a Libguide with posted, selected Slenczynska videos. See: libguides.siue.edu/ruth_slenczynska. e site includes interviews with correspondent Mo Rocca (CBS "Sunday Morning") and Robert Estrin (livingpianos.com), and a review by "Classics Today" music critic David Hurwitz of the Deutsche Grammophon ten-CD box set (484 1302): Ruth Slenczynska: Complete American Decca Recordings, originally issued between 1955- 1963 and re-released in November 2020 to much acclaim. One can also view performances by Ruth ranging from ages 5 to 97. Look for the surprise audience member when she plays Beethoven Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 ("Pastoral")! With these resources at your computer fingertips, there is much you can learn about and listen to of Ruth Slenczynska, this amazing almost-centenarian pianist, without making a trip to the Midwest! A Wld of Music

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