Jonas, Alberto
Jonas, Alberto
Jonas, Alberto, Spanish-American pianist, teacher, and composer; b. Madrid, June 8, 1868; d. Philadelphia, Nov. 9, 1943. He received primary music training in Madrid, then studied piano and theory of composition at the Brussels Cons. In 1890 he went to St. Petersburg, where he had some lessons with A. Rubinstein. After a brief concert career in Europe, he went to the U.S., where he taught piano at the Univ. of Mich. (1894–98) and the Detroit Cons. (1898–1904). From 1904 to 1914 he taught in Berlin. After the outbreak of World War I, he settled in N.Y., where he established a fine reputation as a piano pedagogue. In collaboration with 16 pianists, he publ. Master School of Modern Piano Playing and Virtuosity (N.Y., 1922), which went through five editions, and he also brought out several books of piano exercises for beginners. He wrote a number of attractive piano pieces in a salon manner, among them Northern Dances, Hu-moresque, Nocturne, and Evening Song.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire