Ida Krehm

Ida Krehm (February 24, 1912 – August 12, 1998) was a Canadian-American pianist. She began playing the piano at the age of seven and studied at the Hamburg Conservatory. Krehm earned recognition as an orchestral soloist and recitalist with various symphony orchestras in the Americas and Europe. She also performed the role of a conductor-pianist and recorded the works of various composers. The Ida Krehm Memorial Scholarship was set up by her family at The Royal Conservatory of Music.

Early life and education On February 24, 1912, Krehm was born in Toronto, Canada. Her parents were modest Russian Jewish immigrants who had no background in music. Her parents, Sarah and Hyman Krehm, had emigrated separately from Russia to Canada between 1905 and 1910 and initially lived in Toronto's St. John's Ward, known as The Ward, a working class district that was home to successive waves of immigrants.

They later operated West End Retail Furriers, a fur dealership, and raised their children in an apartment above the store. The business struggled financially, and Hyman also worked at other jobs. Krehm had one younger brother, journalist William Krehm, who had been a promising violinist in his youth. She had early ambitions not centred around music and liked doing school work and doing watercolour and drawing. Artistry was discouraged by Krehm's parents and she spent more time doing music. and began teaching at age 13. moving to the Chicago to study under the Swiss conductor and pianist Rudolph Ganz at the Chicago Musical College. Krehm's professional debut in Canada came at the Hart House in the University of Toronto for the Women's Musical Club of Toronto on March 2, 1939. Krehm was made Bloch's selected soloist for his Scherzo fantasque with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on December 2, 1950, and was the introducer of works by Jiri Antonin Benda, Norman Dello Joio, M.K. Čiurlionis, Rudolph Ganz, Carlos Surinach, Alexandre Tansman and Alexander Tcherepnin. Reed Hynds wrote of Krehm's playing technique: "She had a comprehensive technique which expressed itself in flying fingers under rigid control, a sense of total color which was capable of minute dynamic adjustments, and an intellectual grasp which kept every phrase subordinate to her conception of the work as a whole."

According to Betty Nygaard King and Eleanor Kodofsky in Krehm's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia, the pianist's work was identified "by high competence and a questing intelligence". The Ida Krehm Memorial Scholarship was set up by her family at The Royal Conservatory of Music. She was profiled on CBC Radio in March 1999.