Róża Etkin-Moszkowska

Róża Etkin (1908 in Warsaw – 16 January 1945 in Warsaw), known after marriage as Róża Etkin-Moszkowska, was a Polish pianist.

Etkin, who showed considerable talent early in life, was the youngest contestant at the inaugural I International Chopin Piano Competition, where she was awarded the 3rd prize. She was a pupil of Aleksander Michałowski and Zbigniew Drzewiecki in Warsaw. During the early 1930s she settled in Berlin to study with Professor Moritz Mayer-Mahr. She developed a very large repertoire, including the late sonatas of Beethoven, the Rachmaninov concerti, the Goldberg Variations, Prokofiev's and Karol Szymanowski's works and Godowsky's arrangements of the Chopin Waltzes. She played a good deal of Chopin, and won critical approval for her performance of his first piano concerto (E minor, op. 11). She made several recordings, some produced under the Berlin Tri-Ergon label.^[1]

Etkin married Ryszard Moszkowski, nephew of the composer Moritz Moszkowski. Both were murdered by German soldiers at the Żoliborz district in Warsaw.^[2] As the German army was retreating from Warsaw a soldier threw a live grenade into a shelter where they and several other people were taking refuge.^[3]

References[edit]

^ Biographical information from: James Methuen-Campbell, Chopin Playing from the Composer to the Present Day (Victor Gollancz Ltd, London 1981), p. 117.
^ See article by Dybowsky, ext. links.
^ This is stated by Methuen-Campbell.