Lucie Stern

Lucie Stern (14 November 1913 – 15 May 1938) was a Russian classical pianist. She was considered exceptional even among child prodigies in Europe and the United States. Stern became the youngest student ever at the Berlin Music Academy at the age of six. Later, she earned a scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music, made her Carnegie Hall debut and recorded for Ampico at 13. This confirmed the career success predicted for her; it ended early with her death at 24.

Early life and education Stern was born in Riga, then part of the Russian Empire and now part of Latvia, the daughter of Jewish piano teacher Paula Goldberg. Recognised as a child prodigy in piano, she became the youngest student at the Berlin Academy of Music (Berliner Hochschule für Musik). She studied with Egon Petri and under Leonid Kreutzer at six and a half.

During a family visit to the United States, Stern played several small concerts, which attracted the attention of Polish-American pianist Josef Hofmann, the head of the piano department at the Curtis Institute of Music. By September 1925, she was invited to his class at the institute and awarded a scholarship.

Hofmann said Stern had "the rarest talent of any child I ever heard"

In 1925, Stern "first appeared on the New York concert stage at Town Hall" at the age of 11. Olin Downes in The New York Times noted her "gigantic technic" and extensive repertoire. However, he argued that music demanded expression as much as technique, and Stern had yet to develop interpretative maturity beyond many concert pianists. She is buried in the Jewish cemetery Har Nebo Cemetery, Frankford, Philadelphia.

Recording and compositions At the age of 13, Stern recorded a piano roll of Chopin's Impromptu No. 1 in A-flat major, Op. 29 for the American Piano Company. It was released in 1926.

Little is known about the pianist's compositions, which are considered lost. Stern occasionally enriched her solo programs with one of her works; as noted during her 23 September 1927 recital in Berlin's Beethovensaal.