Anna Luboshutz

Anna Luboshutz (July 13, 1887 – February 20, 1975) was a Russian cellist. She was a gold medal winner in 1908 at the Moscow Conservatory[1] and had a major performing career in Russia both as a soloist and in a chamber ensemble, the Luboshutz Trio, with her sister, the violinist Lea Luboshutz and her brother, the pianist Pierre Luboshutz.[2] She was the first Soviet cellist to be awarded the title “Honored Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.”

Anna Luboshutz
Born(1887-07-13)July 13, 1887
Odessa, Ukraine
Died(1975-02-20)February 20, 1975
Moscow
GenresClassical
InstrumentsCello

Early life

Born in Odessa, Ukraine, her first teacher was her father. Her mother supported the family by selling pianos. After graduating from the cello class of the Odessa Conservatory in 1903, Anna followed her sister Lea to the Moscow Conservatory and joined Alfred von Glehn's cello class in the fall of 1904. She also studied piano with Dmitri Veiss. Although she was recognized first and foremost as a cellist, her piano playing was distinguished enough that she accompanied some of the great artists of the day including the violinist Eugene Ysaye when he came to Moscow. While a student at the Conservatory, she became part of an all-female piano trio featuring her sister as violinist and Esther Chernetskaya as pianist (all three would end up as gold medal winners at the Conservatory). A patron, Evgenii Frantsevich Vitachek, was so impressed with her playing that he loaned her a Guadagnini cello while she was a student. Upon her graduation, Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov took up a collection and purchased the cello for her.

Career

When Chernetskaya decided to leave the trio, she was replaced briefly by another female pianist, Rosa Kaufman Pasternak, mother of the Nobel prize-winning writer, and the trio played at Leo Tolstoy's memorial in Moscow. Thereafter, Anna's brother, the pianist Pierre Luboshutz, took Rosa's place and the three siblings formed the Luboshutz Trio, an ensemble that performed throughout Russia including one tour in 1913-1914 that took them to over 50 cities. Anna also appeared regularly with the basso Fyodor Chaliapin and in concerts organized by Serge Koussevitzky. She also soloed with orchestras conducted by Arthur Nikisch and Emil Cooper.

Following the Russian Revolution, Luboshutz decided to remain in the Soviet Union with her husband, Nikolai Shereshevsky, a distinguished physician who was treated well by the new regime. After the Revolution, she toured constantly throughout the Soviet Union performing not only in concert halls but in factories, aboard naval ships of the Northern Fleet, and even, on one occasion, deep underground in a coal mine in the Donats Basin region for the workers. When back in Moscow, she performed almost daily on radio, not only playing compositions for cello but also transcribing and performing works from her sister's violin repertoire. From 1931 to 1939, she was a regular soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic. In 1939, the Philharmonic honored her with an award which bore the inscription: “You are an artist whose conscientiousness and commitment to her work serves as an example to others.” Her final concert was on February 19, 1947.

Anna was the first Soviet cellist to be awarded the title “Honored Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.” With it came special status, a lifetime stipend, and the right to be buried in the cemetery at the Novodevichy Monastery, the most honored burial place in Moscow. Anna was also honored at a gala event in Moscow on January 22, 1969, after her eightieth birthday. The host for the evening was the leading Soviet cellist of the time, Mstislav Rostropovich.[3]

A musical family

Luboshutz's sister Lea was a celebrated violinist who emigrated to the United States and taught at the Curtis Institute of Music. Her brother Pierre Luboshutz formed a well-known duo-piano team with his wife Genia Nemenoff. Her nephew, Boris Goldovsky, started his career as a pianist but became an opera impresario and teacher. Two grand nephews, Andrew and Thomas Wolf, also had careers in music.

Sources
  1. Zavadskaya, N (November 14, 1969). Devotion to Art. Moscow: Muzykalnaya Zhisn (Musical Life).
  2. Wolf, Thomas. The Nightingale’s Sonata. New York: Pegasus Books Publishing. p. 281.
  3. Zavadskaya, N (November 14, 1969). Devotion to Art. Moscow: Muzykalnaya Zhisn (Musical Life).
  • Wolf, Thomas, The Nightingale’s Sonata: The Musical Odyssey of Lea Luboshutz, New York and London: Pegasus Books, 2019. ISBN 978-1-64313-067-5
  • Goldovsky, Boris and Curtis Cate, My Road to Opera, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1979
  • Luboshitz, Anna, “Devotion to Art” from “Muzykalnaya Zhizn” (Musical Life), Moscow: November 14, 1969
  • Luboshutz, Lea, unpublished memoir dated 1936; A later version titled “LUBO: Four Generations of Music,” is undated
  • Российская Портретная Галерея: Любошиц Анна Сауловна (1887-1975) (accessed on July 15, 2017).
  • Novodevichy Cemetery: Любошиц Анна Сауловна (1887-1975) (accessed on July 15, 2017).
  • ЛЮБОШИЦ (accessed on July 15, 2017).
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