Sarah Gurowitsch

Sarah Gurowitsch was born in Russia, the daughter of Harry and Esther Goldenberg Gurowitsch, and raised in New York.[1] Her brother Frank and her sister Esther were also musicians.[2] She studied in New York at the National Conservatory of Music and with cellists Hans Kronold and Leo Schulz,[3][4] then went to Germany for further musical studies with Robert Hausmann.[5] In 1906, she won the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdi Prize in Berlin.[6][7]

While in Europe, Gurowitsch played Eugen d'Albert's cello concerto, with the composer himself accompanying her on piano.[6] She made her American debut in 1910, with the New York Symphony Orchestra, under conductor Walter Damrosch.[2][8][9] In 1913 she made a recording of the Kol Nidre,[10] and headlined a "Russian Music Carnival" at Carnegie Hall.[11]

In 1914, she toured on the lyceum circuit with baritone Marcus A. Kellerman.[6] In 1916, she played at a concert of Jewish music at Columbia University.[12] She played a concert at Bushwick High School in 1917.[13] "She has a splendid command of her instrument," commented one reviewer in 1919, "gets a beautiful tone, and plays with sureness and soulful interpretation."[14]

Gurowitsch left the professional stage after marriage in 1919, but she occasionally played at Jewish women's events in Bergen County, New Jersey. For example, in 1931 she played at a women's meeting of the YMHA,[15] and in 1939 she performed at a local meeting of the National Council of Jewish Women.[16]

Sarah Gurowitsch married a fellow Russian immigrant, Samuel Benjamin Leight, in 1919. Their sons Lawrence and Donald became musicians;[17] another son, Edward, became an illustrator.[2] Playwright and television producer Warren Leight is Sarah Gurowitsch's grandson.[17] Her husband died in 1970.[18] Sarah Gurowitsch Leight died in 1981, aged 92 years.[2][19]

• Esquisses Hébraïques : Clarinet quintets on Jewish themes (1999), includes a recording of Sarah Gurowitsch's "Kol nidrei" for clarinet and string quartet.