Hephzibah Menuhin

Hephzibah Menuhin (20 May 19201 January 1981) was an American-Australian pianist, writer, and human rights campaigner. She was sister to the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and to the pianist, painter, and poet Yaltah Menuhin. She was also a linguist and writer, co-authoring several books and writing many papers with her second husband, Richard Hauser.

Early life Hephzibah Menuhin was born in San Francisco, California. Through her father Moshe Menuhin, Menuhin was descended from a distinguished rabbinical dynasty. Her mother, Marutha, has been described as "dominant and controlling".

The Menuhin children had little formal schooling. Hephzibah spent only five days at a San Francisco school, where she was classed as educationally backward. Her parents took her out of school and taught her to read and write at home. She started studying the piano at the age of four, initially with Judith Blockley, a specialist in teaching young children, and later with Lev Shorr, a Russian-born grand-pupil of Theodor Leschetizky and future teacher of Leon Fleisher.

She gave her first recital in San Francisco in 1928 when she was eight.

In quick succession, Yehudi (aged 21) married Nola, and Hephzibah (aged 17) married Lindsay, She moved with Lindsay Nicholas to his grazing property "Terrinallum" near Derrinallum, Victoria, where she spent the next 13 years.

She started a traveling library for children and bore two sons, Kronrod and Marston Nicholas. However, while she curtailed her musical career, she did not entirely abandon it. She played with the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras She was also connected with the Heide circle of contemporary artists and opened the Royal Tour Contemporary Art Exhibition in 1954 at Mirka Mora's studio in Melbourne.

London In Sydney, Hephzibah Menuhin met and became involved with Richard Hauser, an Austrian Quaker sociologist and social commentator who had moved to Sydney with his family, then wife Ruth Hauser, and their daughter Eva. Hephzibah divorced her husband and married Hauser in Sydney in 1955. Two years later Menuhin and Hauser moved to London with their daughter, Clara Menuhin-Hauser, where they fostered Michael Alexander Morgan, a boy of mixed Welsh and Nigerian background, who grew up with Clara.

They founded the Institute for Human Rights and Responsibilities, and the Centre for Group Studies, and later moved to Friends Hall, a Quaker settlement house in Bethnal Green, in the East End of London. They later ran a Human Rights refuge from their house at 16 Ponsonby Place in Pimlico. This also became the base for The Institute for Social Research, which Sir Richard Hauser ran until his death. They worked on small-steps conciliation and attempted to help minorities all over the world, and she was a passionate supporter of women's and children's rights.

In 1977 Hephzibah Menuhin became the President of the British chapter of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Hephzibah and Richard Hauser wrote "The Fraternal Society" (Bodley Head) together.

In 1962 she and Yehudi toured Australia. She toured with Yehudi and the Menuhin Festival Orchestra: the United States and Canada in 1967, and Australia in 1970 and 1975. In 1977 she was a member of the judges' panel for the first Sydney International Piano Competition. In Melbourne that year she played at a concert at which her son, Dr Marston Nicholas, made his public debut as a cellist. Her brother, Yehudi, dedicated his Royal Albert Hall concert on 08 February 1981 and his Carnegie Hall concert of 22 February 1981 to her memory. Her recordings include Schubert's Trout Quintet with members of the Amadeus Quartet, Mozart concertos with her brother conducting, trios with Yehudi and Maurice Gendron, and sonatas with Yehudi.

Memorial The annual $8,000 Hephzibah Menuhin Memorial Scholarship for young Australian pianists was established in 1980. It is administered alternately by the University of Melbourne Faculty of Music and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The principal soloist's dressing room at the Melbourne Arts Centre's Hamer Hall was named in Hephzibah's honour. A biography An Exacting Heart was published in 2008 by Jacqueline Kent.

A biography of Yehudi Menuhin and his family entitled Yehudiana – Reliving the Menuhin Odyssey by Philip Bailey, who worked on the Menuhin staff from 1976 until Yehudi's death in 1999, was published in late 2008. This book contains some information concerning Hephzibah's life.