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Vladimir Padwa 1900 - 1981

Vladimir Padwa of New York, New York County, NY was born on February 8, 1900, and died at age 81 years old in April 1981.

Vladimir Padwa

New York, New York County, NY 10031

February 8, 1900

April 1981

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Vladimir Padwa Vladimir Padwa (1900 - 1981)

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Vladimir Padwa's History: 1900 - 1981

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Introduction

Vladimir Padwa (February 8, 1900 – April 28, 1981) was an American pianist, composer, and educator. Biography He was born in Kryviakino, Russia, the son of Mikhail and Maria (Schneidmann) Padwa. He was raised in Estonia, then a territory of Imperial Russia, receiving Estonian citizenship in 1917 when Estonia became an independent country. He married Alexandra Niedas of Tallinn in 1927. The couple resided in London and Berlin before coming to the United States in 1932. Their daughter Tatiana was born in 1933. The family settled in New York City and later lived in Woodstock, New York from 1935 to 1946. Padwa and Alexandra divorced in 1946, and he married Natalie Joy Lozier in the same year. Their son Thomas was born in 1953. Padwa became a U.S. citizen in 1948, and from that year made his home in New York City. Career He was educated at the Conservatories of St. Petersburg, Berlin and Leipzig, receiving the Matura degree from Leipzig in 1924. At the age of 17, he was also co-founder in 1917 of the State Conservatory of Music in Tallinn, Estonia. He was the last pupil of Ferruccio Busoni in Berlin and then studied with Busoni’s master pupil Michael Zadora. He gave concerts throughout Europe, and in collaboration with the Neo-Bechstein company, he was director of and a performer in the first broadcast of all-electronic music from Berlin, in 1932. Padwa’s collaboration with Bechstein resulted in 1932 in a six-month contract with Radio-Keith Orpheum (RKO) and the Radio City Theaters to perform in America on the Bechstein electric piano as part of the Inaugural Roxy radio broadcast from Radio City Music Hall in New York City on November 13, 1932. Before ending his contract in 1933, he performed regularly in radio broadcasts and gave the first live solo piano broadcast of electronic music in the U.S. His concert career included a seven-year association as accompanist to violinist Mischa Elman, with whom he made four successful world tours to five continents from 1934 to 1940.[1] In the 1930s and 1940s Padwa also participated in the Maverick Concert Hall music series in Woodstock, New York. In 1940 he was musical director of the Woodstock Playhouse Concerts. In 1941, along with pianists Adam Garner, Frank Mittler, and Edward Edson, he founded the nationally acclaimed First Piano Quartet. The FPQ was heard regularly on radio and recorded for RCA Victor. He became professor of music at the New York College of Music in 1948, and was named chairman of the piano department in 1967; In 1968, the College of Music merged with New York University, where he became Associate Professor of Music Education. After 1948 he spent his summers composing at the Vermont Toy Farm in Essex Junction, Vermont. In 1958 he was made an honorary member of the Accademia Internazionale Di Roma. During the 1960s and 1970s he was an adjudicator for the New Brunswick Competitive Festival of Music and Quebec Music Festivals, for whom he was commissioned to write piano pieces to be used in sight reading competitions. Thiel College awarded him an honorary doctorate in music in 1978. He composed music for a wide range of instruments and was a member of the American Society of Composers and Publishers, from which he received the Standard Panel Awards annually from 1968-1980. Professor Padwa maintained a full teaching and performing schedule to the end of his life. A collection of his music and papers is maintained at the music library of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, in the U.S.A.
02/8

1900

Birthday

February 8, 1900

Birthdate

Unknown

Birthplace

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Ethnicity & Family History

Biography He was born in Kryviakino, Russia, the son of Mikhail and Maria (Schneidmann) Padwa. He was raised in Estonia, then a territory of Imperial Russia, receiving Estonian citizenship in 1917 when Estonia became an independent country. He married Alexandra Niedas of Tallinn in 1927. The couple resided in London and Berlin before coming to the United States in 1932. Their daughter Tatiana was born in 1933. The family settled in New York City and later lived in Woodstock, New York from 1935 to 1946. Padwa and Alexandra divorced in 1946, and he married Natalie Joy Lozier in the same year. Their son Thomas was born in 1953. Padwa became a U.S. citizen in 1948, and from that year made his home in New York City.
04/dd

1981

Death

April 1981

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

Unknown
Death location

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Obituary

May 1, 1981 Credit: The New York Times Archives Vladimir Padwa, a composer, pianist and faculty member at New York University, died of a heart attack at his Manhattan home on Tuesday. He was 81 years old. Mr. Padwa was born in Russia, educated in Leningrad, Berlin and Leipzig, and was a pupil of Ferrucio Busoni. A founding member of the First Piano Quartet, he recorded for RCA Victor and was the former chairman of the piano department of the New York College of Music. His compositions included a ballet, ''Tom Sawyer,'' a symphony, a concerto for two pianos and a one-act opera, ''Compartment No. 7,'' which was chosen by the New York City Opera for its 1981 Opera America Showcase. Biography He was born in Kryviakino, Russia, the son of Mikhail and Maria (Schneidmann) Padwa. He was raised in Estonia, then a territory of Imperial Russia, receiving Estonian citizenship in 1917 when Estonia became an independent country. He married Alexandra Niedas of Tallinn in 1927. The couple resided in London and Berlin before coming to the United States in 1932. Their daughter Tatiana was born in 1933. The family settled in New York City and later lived in Woodstock, New York from 1935 to 1946. Padwa and Alexandra divorced in 1946, and he married Natalie Joy Lozier in the same year. Their son Thomas was born in 1953. Padwa became a U.S. citizen in 1948, and from that year made his home in New York City. He also had a daughter, Tatiana Padwa.

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Vladimir Padwa lived 3 years longer than the average family member when died at the age of 81.

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3 Memories, Stories & Photos about Vladimir

Amanda S. Stevenson

17.8k+ favorites

05/08/2022

Vladimir Padwa, pianist and composer.

Restored by Amanda Stevenson.

Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.

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Amanda S. Stevenson

17.8k+ favorites

10/14/2018

Vladimir Padwa

A photo of Vladimir Padwa album
Encores - The First Piano Quartet

Founded in 1941 as a radio ensemble, the First Piano Quartet, consisting of four pianists - Vladimir Padwa, Frank Mittler, Adam Garner and Edward Edson - enjoyed great popularity during its first decade or so of existence. It's easy to understand why. Their arrangements, made by the players themselves, were great fun, were usually quite brilliant and were performed with a tightness of ensemble that made the four pianos sound almost like one super-piano. The music chosen, popular classics and semi-classics, made few demands on listeners' ears; the pieces never exceeded two 78-rpm record sides in length. When the "FPQ" began recording for Victor in 1946, the company initially didn't consider them Red Seal material, putting their first three single releases and their first album (a set of Lecuona favorites) in the black-label 46-0000 "Double Feature" series. By 1948 these had all been reissued with red labels, and all their subsequent releases appeared as Red Seals, including this, their third album:

First Piano Quartet Encores:
Liszt: Liebestraum No. 3
Grieg: In the Hall of the Mountain King
Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumblebee
Mendelssohn: Scherzo in E minor
Villa-Lobos: Polichinelle
Brahms: Lullaby
Rachmaninoff: Italian Polka
Schubert: Moment Musicale No. 3
Liadov: The Music Box
Shostakovich: Polka (from "The Golden Age")
Virgil Thomson: Ragtime Bass
Recorded Dec. 22-23, 1947
RCA Victor WMO-1263, three 45-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 57.85 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 42.70 MB)

The group's last RCA release was 1952's "FPQ on the Air" (LM-1227/WDM-1624), by which time Padwa had been replaced with Glauco d'Attili - the first of numerous personnel changes to the ensemble. A few EP reissues followed, but their recordings had all but vanished from the Schwann catalog by 1959, though the group continued to exist until 1972.

Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.

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