Ilona Kabos

Ilona Kabos (7 December 189327 May 1973) was a Hungarian-British pianist and teacher.

Biography Kabos was born Ilona Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Budapest in 1893 She premiered Robert Crawford's Six Bagatelles, Op. 3 (1948).

Kabos' marriage ended in 1945, when Kentner left her for Griselda Gould (daughter of British pianist Evelyn Suart and sister of the ballerina Diana Gould, who was Yehudi Menuhin's second wife).

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

Kabos' better-known students include: Susan Alexander-Max, David Bollard, Robert Cuckson, Monte Hill Davis, Norma Fisher, Peter Frankl, Niel Immelman, William Corbett Jones, Joseph Kalichstein, David Oei, John Ogdon, Roberto Szidon and Alan Weiss. Other students included: Paul Burke, Nigel Coxe, David-Michael Dunbar, Marilyn Engle, Meira Farkas, Jonathan Miles Freeman, Otto Freudenthal, Nancy Burton Garrett, Derek Han, Robin Harrison, Emanuel Krasovsky, Risto Lauriala, Dana Muller, Thalia Myers, Rafael Minaskanian, Joel Sachs, Jeffrey Siegel, Sérgio Varella-Cid, Patrick J. Mullins, and Veda Zuponcic.

Kabos' 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". The crayon was actually a china marker, wrapped in paper. 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).

A hostel for Kabos' students was established in Finchley, North London, by Charles Napper.

In 1968 Serge Tcherepnin wrote a piano piece for Kabos, called simply "For Ilona Kabos".

Recordings Kabos made very few recordings. They include: a record of a 1952 New York Town Hall concert, with works by: Liszt (Variations on 'Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen', S. 180; and excerpts from Weihnachtsbaum, S. 186), and Edward Tatnall Canby, writing in the Saturday Review, said this was "the best piano record I have heard, bar none". Liszt's Gnomenreigen (live, Budapest, 1956) Sir Michael Tippett's Piano Concerto (BBC; undated)