Ursula Malkin | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Ursula Malkin

Elizabeth Ursula Malkin, pianist, teacher (born 6 June 1908 in Vancouver, BC; died 29 September 1996). ATCM 1928, B MUS (British Columbia) 1964.

Ursula Malkin studied piano with Doris Duke, Della Johnston and Jan Cherniavsky in Vancouver, with Berta Jahn-Beer in Vienna 1930–32 and Boston in 1940, and with Alberto Guerrero in Toronto. Her first major performance (1930), Beethoven's Concerto No. 4 with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, was followed by concerts throughout British Columbia and appearances and broadcasts 1937–38 in Australia. In Vancouver, she played chamber music with Allard de Ridder and the visiting Hart House String Quartet, broadcast for the CBC, and was frequently a soloist (until 1954) with the VSO. She began teaching in 1945, working towards the establishment of a music department at the University of British Columbia (1959), and helped found the Community Music School of Greater Vancouver (Vancouver Academy of Music). She was president of the Vancouver Women's Musical Club 194951, music committee chairman 1955-8 of the Community Arts Council of Vancouver and president 1956–58 of the Vancouver Junior Symphony.

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