{{short description|Canadian-American pianist (1912–1998)}} {{Infobox person | name = Ida Krehm | birth_date = {{Birth date|1912|02|24|mf=y}} | birth_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada | death_date = {{Death date and age|1998|08|12|1912|02|24}} | death_place = San José, Costa Rica | citizenship = {{Plainlist| * Canadian * United States of America }} | education = Hambourg Conservatory | occupation = Pianist | spouse = {{marriage|Joseph Richard Pick|1936|1955|end=died}} | other_names = Ida Pick | relatives = William Krehm (brother) }} '''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 setup by her family at The Royal Conservatory of Music.
==Early life and education== On February 24, 1912,<ref name="TCEEntry">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Ida Krehm|encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ida-krehm-emc|date=July 10, 2007|last2=Koldofsky|first2=Eleanor|last1=Nygaard King|first1=Betty|accessdate=June 10, 2021}}</ref> Krehm was born in Toronto, Canada.<ref name="ODT1939Profile">{{cite news|title=Ida Krehm, Young Concert Pianist, to Play Tonight|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79299678/ida-krehm-1939-odt-profile-1-december/|work=Okmulgee Daily Times|page=5|date=December 1, 1939|accessdate=June 10, 2021|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}</ref> Her parents were modest Russian Jewish immigrants who had no background in music.<ref name=TGMObit>{{cite news|last=Krehm|first=William|title=Facts & arguments: lives lived: Ida Krehm|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A30568351/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=8d0777c2|work=The Globe and Mail|page=1|date=September 29, 1998|accessdate=June 10, 2021|via=Gale In Context: Biography|url-access=subscription}}</ref> 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.<ref name="ODT1939Profile" /> When she turned seven years old,<ref name="ODT1939Profile" /> she began playing the piano and went to study under Norah Drewett de Kresz, Ernest Farmer and Viggo Kihl as well as theory with Healey Willan at the Hambourg Conservatory.<ref name="TCEEntry" /><ref name="TGMObit" /> Krehm also did heavy training in harmony following advice by Granville Bantock.<ref name="ODT1939Profile" />
==Career== Upon first experiencing playing to a large audience, Krehm became further inclined to play music. From the ages of eleven to thirteen, she won each of the Canadian national competitions such as the Canadian National Exhibition three times (1923, 1924 and 1925) as well as the Ontario Musical Festival and the Welsh Eisteddfod in 1923 and 1924.<ref name="ODT1939Profile" /> Krehm made her first public concert appearance at a newspaper contest at Bloor Street United Church in 1924,<ref name="TSObit">{{cite news|last=Devos|first=Phillipe|title=Ida Krehm, 86, concert pianist, recording artist|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/437809828|work=Toronto Star|date=August 24, 1998|accessdate=June 10, 2021|page=1|id={{ProQuest|437809828}}|url-access=subscription}}</ref> and began teaching at age 13.<ref name="TCEEntry" /> She became a resident of the United States in 1929,<ref name="MG1947">{{cite news|title=Ida Krehm, Portia White Featured On Top Broadcasts Next Week|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79300482/ida-krehm-montreal-gazette-31-may-1947/|work=Montreal Gazette|date=May 31, 1947|accessdate=June 10, 2021|page=24|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}</ref> moving to the Chicago Musical Institute to study under the Swiss conductor and pianist Rudolph Ganz.<ref name="TGMObit" />
Krehm won three national accolades over the course of three weeks in 1937.<ref name="TCEEntry" /><ref name="TGMObit" /> She earned the Schubert Memorial Award by making three appearances alongside the Philadelphia Orchestra, the cash prize of the National Federation of Music Clubs,<ref name="TCEEntry" /> and the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation Award on her debut in New York City at The Town Hall in December 1937.<ref name="NYDebut1937">{{cite news|last=T.|first=H.|title=Ida Krehm, Pianist, Makes Debut Here: Young Artist Who Captured in One Season Three Prizes Reveals Talent|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1913419086|work=The New York Times|page=30|date=December 15, 1937|accessdate=June 10, 2021|id={{ProQuest|1913419086}} |url-access=subscription}}</ref> 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.<ref name="TCEEntry" />
She went on to earn more recognition as an orchestral soloist and a recitalist in the Americas with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Guatemala National Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and in Europe with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Zurich Radio Orchestra.<ref name="TCEEntry" /><ref name="MG1951">{{cite news|title=Ida Krehm Is Selected To Open Next YM-YWH.A. Concert Series|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79300651/ida-krehm-2-june-1951-montreal-gazette/|work=Montreal Gazette|date=June 2, 1951|accessdate=June 10, 2021|page=22|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}</ref><ref name="SBT1969">{{cite news|title=Pianist Ida Krehm Plans Concert at Andrews U.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79300408/ida-krehm-sbt-30-march-1969-article/|work=South Bend Tribune|date=March 30, 1969|accessdate=June 10, 2021|page=26|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}</ref> 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.<ref name="TCEEntry" />
In 1962, Krehm made her debut as a pianist-conductor in Hilversum, the Netherlands and went on to repeat this role with London's English Chamber Orchestra and Melos Ensemble and the CBC Symphony Orchestra in Toronto. She also performed this role in Berlin, Trondheim in Norway and at the 1976 Oriveto Festival. Krehm commissioned the 1977 ''Concertino'' by Srul Irving Glick she wrote for her to play on the keyboard. She recorded the works of various composers such as Robert Schumann, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Alexander Scriabin among others.<ref name="TCEEntry" />
==Personal life== She was married to Joseph Richard Pick from 1936 until his death from getting an overdose of radioactive iodine in 1955.<ref name="TCEEntry" /><ref name="TSObit" /> On August 12, 1998, Krehm died from cardiac arrest in San José, Costa Rica.<ref name="TGMObit" /> She was buried in the country and a memorial service was held for her at the St. George's Society of Toronto on August 30.<ref name="TSObit" />
==Character and legacy== Wilson L. Taylor in 1938 described Krehm as having "a trim figure" and "a pleasant personality".<ref name="SCJ1938">{{cite news|last=Taylor|first=Wilson L.|title=Ida Krehm, Pianist to Play Tonight, Has Beauty to Go with Great Talent|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79300567/ida-krehm-21-november-1938-scj-article/|work=Sioux City Journal|page=5|date=November 21, 1938|accessdate=June 10, 2021|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}</ref> 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."<ref name=STArticle1941>{{cite news|last=Hynds|first=Reed|title=The Symphony: Ida Krehm Fills a Man's Place in Brahms D Minor|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79300455/ida-krehm-st-louis-st-13-december/|work=St. Louis Star-Times|date=December 13, 1941|accessdate=June 10, 2021|page=10|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}</ref>
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".<ref name="TCEEntry" /> The Ida Krehm Memorial Scholarship was setup by her family at The Royal Conservatory of Music. She was profiled on CBC Radio in March 1999.<ref name="TCEEntry" />
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Krehm, Ida}} Category:1912 births Category:1998 deaths Category:20th-century Canadian women musicians Category:20th-century Canadian classical pianists Category:Canadian expatriate musicians in the United States Category:Canadian expatriates in Costa Rica Category:Canadian people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Musicians from Toronto Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Canadian women classical pianists Category:20th-century American women pianists Category:20th-century Canadian women pianists