Minuetta Kessler

Minuetta Shumiatcher Borek Kessler (September 5, 1914 – November 30, 2002) was a Russian-born Canadian and later American concert pianist, classical music composer, and educator. A child prodigy, she performed her first composition at a recital at the age of 5 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and went on to study at the Juilliard School in New York City. She composed hundreds of pieces, including music for piano, violin, voice, flute, clarinet and cello, as well as for chamber ensembles. She performed all over Canada and in Boston and New York, including performances at Carnegie Hall and The Town Hall, and with the Boston Civic Symphony and the Boston Pops. The New York Times called her "a rare phenomenon among the younger pianists of today – more musician than pianist". the eldest child of Abraham Isaac Shumiatcher, a lawyer who attended the University of Alberta Faculty of Law and was appointed a Queen's Counsel, and his wife, Luba Lubinsky, a graduate of the University of Warsaw who worked as a tutor for children in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Her parents had moved to Calgary before her birth, but her mother was visiting her native country when Minuetta was born. Her paternal grandfather, Judah Shumiatcher, is said to have brought the first Torah scroll to Calgary. She had a younger brother, Dr. Morris C. Shumiatcher, QC, who became a noted Canadian lawyer.

Minuetta was recognized as a child prodigy at the age of 5, when she performed her own composition in a piano recital held by the studio of John M. Williams and Shaylor Turner. According to a reviewer, her performance was "one of the surprises of the evening", as she "played her own composition in a most expressive manner". At the latter recital, a reviewer wrote, "The precocity of this six year old is surprising". In 1975 she performed the piece with the Century Calgary Symphony Orchestra in honor of Calgary's centennial celebrations. She also used a "simplified notational system" called "Dash-a-Notes" in her music primer, Piano Is My Name (1975). International Encyclopedia of Women Composers (1987), Two Thousand Notable Americans (1989), International Who's Who in Music and Musicians Directory (1996), and the World Who's Who of Women (1992–3), as well as The National Golden Book – Distinguished Women of the U.S.A., Who's Who of American Jewry, National Social Directory, and International Who's Who in Community Service. They had one son, Ronald Kessler (né Borek), a journalist and author. In September 1952 she remarried to Myer M. Kessler, a physicist at MIT,

Kessler died at her home in Belmont on November 30, 2002, at the age of 88, and was interred at Sharon Memorial Park.