Eleanor Sokoloff: Sharing Her Gift

at 11:55AM, 1:55PM, and 3:55PM

ABOUT SOKOLOFF
"You learn when you teach," says Eleanor Sokoloff. If that's true, this music maven is a richly educated woman, having taught at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music for more than 65 years.

Sokoloff first came to the Curtis in 1931, as a piano student. She joined the staff just five years later and has been making music there ever since. Sokoloff's journey to the Curtis also led her to love: to a handsome man who shared her passion for piano, who often joined her in four-hand duets, and who would become her husband.

Sokoloff's daughters have continued the family's musical legacy. Laurie (also a Curtis alumna) is a principal piccolo of the Baltimore Symphony. Kathy is Director of Development at the Settlement Music School.

To this day, Sokoloff provides rigorous training for her students; she is famous for requiring each pupil to play a Bach piece during every lesson. She also insists that students know every musical term in every piece they study.The repertoire she teaches is wide, ensuring that students become well-rounded and accomplished musicians.

Sokoloff's track record is impressive: over 75 of her students have been chosen to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra. "She has influenced me profoundly," one of them writes, "both in my understanding of life, and the career of a pianist."

New Curtis students had better keep on their toes, as this energetic 86-year-old Sokoloff promises, "I will never retire!"

A PRIZE PUPIL
Christina Anum-Dorhuso was a featured pianist on Suzanne's show, and one of Sokoloff's students since 1997. Born in Odessa, Ukraine, this 21-year-old has been studying since age six and made her public debut in 1987 at the Odessa National Conservatory. She has performed as soloist with the Odessa Philharmonic and Kiev Philharmonic Orchestras, and has played on Ukranian national radio and television. In addition to the piano, Anum-Dorhuso plays the saxophone.

MORE ON CURTIS
The Curtis Institute of Music is located on Philadelphia's prestigious Rittenhouse Square. Founded in 1924 by Mary Louise Curtis Bok, The Institute trains exceptionally gifted young musicians for careers as performing artists on the highest professional level. It is the only school of its kind to provide merit-based full-tuition scholarships to all of its students.

This year, 169 musicians and vocalists from the U.S. and 26 other countries are studying with the school's celebrated 82-member faculty. Because of its small size, Curtis may well be the most difficult school to get into in the world. With about 45 openings each year, competition is intense. "There's a sort of rumor that Curtis is the place where everybody auditions but nobody gets in," said violinist Hilary Hahn, who admits to having run around her house yelling and jumping for joy when, at age 10, she learned that she had been accepted.

The select few who enter Curtis attend the school for 2-12 years, graduating when their teacher deems them ready.

Curtis alumni hold at least a third of the principal chairs in the country's "Big Five" orchestras - Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Philadelphia. The conservatory has produced so many renowned musicians that Leonard Bernstein, also an alumnus, once referred to Curtis as a "virtuoso factory." Other illustrious Curtis veterens include composers Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti, the opera singer Anna Moffo and the pianists Jorge Bolet and Peter Serkin.

Weekly recitals are held most Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings in Curtis Hall, with Curtis students performing a varied selection of solo and chamber music. The recitals are open to the public and FREE of charge. For more information, call the Curtis Recital Hotline at (215) 893-5261.