Ilona Kabos (7 December 1893 – 27 May 1973) was a Hungarian-British pianist and teacher.
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Ilona Kabos was born in Budapest in 1893[1] (some sources give her year of birth as 1894, 1898 or 1902). She studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music under Arpad Szendy (a pupil of Franz Liszt), Leo Weiner and Zoltán Kodály, and in 1915 she won the Liszt Prize. In the early part of her career, she played for Ferruccio Busoni, who also played for her.[2] She toured widely, giving a number of premiere performances of works by such composers as Kodály, Weiner, Béla Bartók, Luigi Dallapiccola, Roy Harris, Carlos Chávez and Mátyás Seiber.[3] She premiered Robert Crawford's Six Bagatelles, Op. 3 (1948).[4]
She taught at the Royal Budapest Academy of Music from 1930 through 1936. She made her American debut in 1951.[1]
Ilona Kabos was married to her fellow Hungarian pianist Louis Kentner, and they made their home in London. She was distressed[2] when he left her for Griselda Gould (daughter of the British pianist Evelyn Suart, and the sister of the ballerina Diana Gould, who was Yehudi Menuhin's second wife). It is claimed that her pianism was superior to that of Kentner's.[2]
Ilona Kabos's greatest legacy is as a teacher of other pianists. She gave master classes, and taught both privately and at institutions such as Dartington Summer School[3] and the Juilliard School (from 1965, at the express invitation of Peter Mennin; Kabos and Rosina Lhévinne often exchanged students).[5]
Her better-known students include: Susan Alexander-Max, David Bollard, [6] Robert Cuckson, [7] Monte Hill Davis, Norma Fisher,[8][3] Peter Frankl,[3] Joan Havill, [9] Niel Immelman, William Corbett Jones, Joseph Kalichstein,[3][10] David Oei, John Ogdon,[3] Denver Oldham, Kun-Woo Paik, Alberto Portugheis, Staffan Scheja,[11] and Roberto Szidon.
Other students included: Paul Burke,[12] Nigel Coxe,[13] David-Michael Dunbar,[14] Marilyn Engle,[15] Meira Farkas, Jonathan Miles Freeman,[16] Otto Freudenthal,[17] Nancy Burton Garrett,[18] Derek Han,[19] Robin Harrison,[20] Emanuel Krasovsky,[21] Risto Lauriala,[22] Dana Muller,[23] Thalia Myers,[24] Joel Sachs,[25] Jeffrey Siegel,[26] and Sérgio Varella-Cid.[27]
Her teaching method included scribbling on the music during her lessons. She was given to writing "bold directions in red crayon, right across the page, in huge letters, gratuitous slashes".[28]
She was also the musical advisor for a number of films: Murder in the Cathedral (1951), The Fake (1953), The Diamond (1954), Jet Storm (1959), and The Hands of Orlac (1960).[29]
A hostel for Ilona Kabos's students was established in Finchley, North London, by Charles Napper.[3]
She died in London in 1973, aged 79.[1]
The Inventions, Op. 3, are a set of piano pieces by Andre Tchaikowsky; each invention is a musical portrait of a friend or colleague of Tchaikowsky's, and No. 3 was subtitled "To Ilona Kabos".[3]
In 1968 Serge Tcherepnin wrote a piano piece for her, called simply "For Ilona Kabos".
Ilona Kabos made very few recordings. They include: