About Luli Oswald
Lived 1927 – 2005 (aged 77–78). Luli Oswald was a pianist.
Luli Oswald (* 1927 in Rio de Janeiro; † 2 January 2005 ibid) was a Brazilian pianist and piano teacher.
Life
Origin and Family Luli Oswald is the illegitimate daughter of the pianist Arthur Rubinstein and the Italian Marquess Paola Medici del Vascello (born Princess Paola di Viggiano; also: Donna Paola Sanfelice dei Principi di Viggiano). Oswald was never recognised by her biological parents, hidden from public view and given as a newborn to a friend of Rubinstein's, the Brazilian conductor and composer Henrique Oswald. The latter's daughter Maria and her husband Odoardo Marchesini raised her and adopted her. The adoptive parents signed an affidavit in 1967 stating that Luli Oswald had been entrusted to them by her biological parents Paola Medici and Arthur Rubinstein because she was the "fruit of a forbidden love". and gave birth to seven children. The marriage was later divorced. She adopted the stage name Luli de Freitas after the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, as the name "Oswald" became unpopular because of Lee Harvey Oswald, who was accused of Kennedy's murder. However, she later reappeared under her stage name Luli Oswald again.
Career Oswald studied piano with Tomás Terán and Magda Tagliaferro in Brazil, with Isidore Philipp in Paris, with Rosina Lhévinne in New York and with her father Arthur Rubinstein. She also completed studies in England, Hungary and Poland.
As a pianist, she performed in public from 1960, and her international career began in the United States in 1962. She performed with orchestras in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, the USA, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Japan and the Canary Islands. She has also performed with other pianists, including Nelson Freire and André Carrara. With Freire and Carrara, for example, she interpreted Mozart's 7th Piano Concerto in F major, K. 242 (Concerto for Three Pianos) in Brazil in 1991. In the same year, she performed Poulenc's Concerto in D minor for two pianos with the Spanish pianist Jesús A. Rodriquez on Tenerife.
She retired from concert life between 1972 and 1986.
Literature
Interview with Luli Oswald In the appendix of the master thesis of Lucia Cervini Interpretação em Henrique Oswald: transformações entre o Allegro Agitato da sonata op. 21 e a Sonata-Fantasia op. 44 para violoncelo e piano (Interpretation at Henrique Oswald: transformations between the Allegro Agitato of the sonata op. 21 and the Sonata-Fantasia op. 44 for cello and piano), Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes, 2001. Pages 145 ff. Retrieved 2022-03-05.
Discography
Berceuse of Gilda Guinle. On: Recordando Carlinhos Guinle (Philips 632.116 L; 1962)
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Important facts
People in Luli Oswald's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Luli Oswald's
Frequently asked questions
Who was Luli Oswald?
Brazilian pianist and piano teacher
When was Luli Oswald born?
Luli Oswald was born in 1927.
When did Luli Oswald die?
Luli Oswald died on 2 January 2005.
What was Luli Oswald's occupation?
Luli Oswald was a pianist.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Luli Oswald. https://biography.guide/luli-oswald/
MLA: "Luli Oswald." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/luli-oswald/.
Chicago: "Luli Oswald." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/luli-oswald/.
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