Born: February 22, 1903 - Kiev, Russia
Died: August 10, 1901 - Vienna, Austria

The Russian-born American pianist, Alexander Kelberine, studied at the Kiev Conservatory, then at the University of Vienna. He took lessons from Ferruccio Busoni in Berlin. In 1923 he went to America and studied at the Juilliard Graduate School in New York with Alexander Siloti (piano) and Rubin Goldmark (composition). Later he studied with Ernst Toch. Among his teachers was also Leo Sirota.

Alexander Kelberine was married to Jeanne Behrend (1911-1988) who was a student of Josef Hofmann, Rosario Scalero and Abram Chasins. They formed a duo-piano team and recorded together on the Victor label. Their 1936 set of Bach transcriptions (all by Kelberine) for solo and duo performance is a collector's item today. Later he was estranged from Behrend. A victim of acute depression, he programmed his last recital for pieces in minor keys and of funeral connotations, concluding with Franz Liszt’s Todtentanz, after which he went home and took an overdose of sleeping pills.

Source: Naxos Website; Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20^th Century Classical Musicians (1997)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (March 2007)

Alexander Kelberine: Short Biography | Recordings of Instrumental Works
Bach-Kelberine: Works | Recordings

Links to other Sites

Alexander Kelberine (1903 - 1940) (Naxos)