Isidor Philipp

Isidor Philipp was born in Budapest, Hungary to a Jewish family. He was a child prodigy at the piano, and family and friends raised money to send him to study at the Paris Conservatoire. There he studied with Georges Mathias, a pupil of Frédéric Chopin; Camille Saint-Saëns; and Théodore Ritter, a pupil of Franz Liszt, among others. One of his classmates was Claude Debussy, and the two became close lifelong friends. As a result, Philipp was regarded as the leading authority on Debussy's piano music after his death. At graduation in 1883, Philipp was awarded First Prize in piano performance. He began a solo concert career that took him to many European countries. In 1890, he formed a trio with violinist Loeb and cellist Bertelier, which toured for about a decade. He revived the Société des Instruments à Vent to perform from 1896 to 1901. However, he eventually curtailed his performing, as he found lasting satisfaction in teaching. He returned to the Conservatoire, where he was a professor of piano from 1903 to 1934, serving as chair of the piano department for much of that time. From 1921 to 1933, Philipp was also the head of the piano section at the American Conservatory of Fontainebleau, which became famous for starting the careers of many notable American composers. When Nazi Germany invaded France in World War II, Philipp fled to the USA. The Germans confiscated the many ancient and unusual instruments and other musical artifacts in his home, which were never recovered. Philipp taught privately in New York City and Montreal, Canada. After the war, he split his time between New York and Paris. He gave his farewell recital in Paris at the age of 92 in the demanding piano part of the Franck violin sonata. He published several textbooks of technical exercises for the piano.