Jump to content
 







Main menu
   


Navigation  



Main page
Contents
Current events
Random article
About Wikipedia
Contact us
Donate
 




Contribute  



Help
Learn to edit
Community portal
Recent changes
Upload file
 








Search  

































Create account

Log in
 









Create account
 Log in
 




Pages for logged out editors learn more  



Contributions
Talk
 



















Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 Early life  





2 Career  





3 Personal life  





4 References  





5 Sources  





6 External links  














Maria Korchinska






Català
Deutsch
مصرى
Русский
 

Edit links
 









Article
Talk
 

















Read
Edit
View history
 








Tools
   


Actions  



Read
Edit
View history
 




General  



What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Cite this page
Get shortened URL
Download QR code
Wikidata item
 




Print/export  



Download as PDF
Printable version
 




In other projects  



Wikimedia Commons
 
















Appearance
   

 






From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 


Maria Korchinska
Korchinska pictured in 1960
Korchinska pictured in 1960
Background information
Born(1895-02-16)February 16, 1895
Moscow, Russia
DiedApril 17, 1979(1979-04-17) (aged 84)
London, England, UK
Instrument(s)Harp

Maria Korchinska (16 February 1895 – 17 April 1979) was a distinguished 20th-century Russian harpist and one of the leading 20th-century harpists in Great Britain.

Early life[edit]

Korchinska entered the Moscow Conservatory to study both piano and harp in 1903 but on the advice of her father decided to concentrate on the harp from 1907 on. Her father believed that Russia was entering a time of great change and that given the relatively high number of pianists in Russia it would be easier for his daughter to find work as a harpist than as a pianist. In 1911 she won the first Gold Medal given to a harpist by the Moscow Conservatory.

Career[edit]

In 1919 she became the Professor of Harp at the Conservatory as well as the Principal Harpist at the Bolshoi Orchestra. Korchinska was a founding member of the Persimfans, the famous "Orchestra without a conductor". She was one of the many musicians who played at Vladimir Lenin's funeral.[1]

In Great Britain, Korchinska founded the UK Harp Association and had a successful career as a soloist and ensemble player. She was the first harpist to play at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, was a founding member of the Wigmore Ensemble and was the first British judge at the Israeli Harp competition. Her son Alexander was born in England in July 1926. Bax's Fantasy Sonata for Harp was dedicated to her and she gave the first performance in 1927. Her portrait was taken by Norman Parkinson in 1953 and is now part of the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

She performed in the premieres of several Benjamin Britten works including the Festival of Carols. During World War II she traveled ceaselessly throughout the country to play. In her 1969 BBC interview "Studio Portrait" she said:

"I played .... underground in caves near Lewes, where a piano could not survive the damp. I played in cathedrals and clubs and YMCAs and several times in secret camps and aerodromes, without having the faintest idea of where I was. My life was spent in the black-out trying to find my way. I was lucky I never missed one engagement in spite of all the difficulties in transporting the harp. Several times I was given up, but arrived with my instrument at the last moment, very hot and scared because of the bombing, but able to play."

Korchinska also founded Harp Week in the Netherlands (now known as the World Harp Congress) alongside Phia Berghout. She practised three hours every day until her death in 1979. Favourite pieces included the A Ceremony of CarolsbyBritten and Danse SacréebyDebussy. She taught Karen Vaughan, currently Head of Harp at the Royal Academy of Music in London.[2]

Personal life[edit]

In 1922 Korchinska married Count Constantine Benckendorff (the son of Count Alexander Konstantinovich Benckendorff). Her daughter Nathalie was born in Moscow in September 1923, and in 1946, she married the British art historian Humphrey Brooke.[3]

The Russian Civil War had seen the confiscation of her husband's estate and conditions were extremely difficult. Korchinska had to carry her father's body to his funeral. In 1924 the family decided to leave Russia for Great Britain, taking with them two Lyon & Healy harps. One of these had been purchased in exchange for a bag of salt.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century harpists: a bio-critical sourcebook, Wenonah Milton Govea, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995
  • ^ Discussion with Nathalie Brooke (daughter of Maria Korchinska) August 2011
  • ^ "Humphrey Brooke | | Charles | Saumarez | Smith |". Charlessaumarezsmith.com. 2014-05-02. Retrieved 2016-12-23.
  • Sources[edit]

    External links[edit]


    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maria_Korchinska&oldid=1182349038"

    Categories: 
    1895 births
    1979 deaths
    Russian harpists
    Musicians from Moscow
    Moscow Conservatory alumni
    Academic staff of Moscow Conservatory
    Women harpists
    20th-century women musicians
    Russian music educators
    Russian women music educators
    Countesses of the Russian Empire
    Russian pianists
    Russian women pianists
    Hidden categories: 
    Articles with short description
    Short description is different from Wikidata
    Articles with hCards
    Articles with FAST identifiers
    Articles with ISNI identifiers
    Articles with VIAF identifiers
    Articles with WorldCat Entities identifiers
    Articles with BNF identifiers
    Articles with BNFdata identifiers
    Articles with GND identifiers
    Articles with LCCN identifiers
    Articles with PLWABN identifiers
    Articles with MusicBrainz identifiers
    Articles with DTBIO identifiers
     



    This page was last edited on 28 October 2023, at 19:22 (UTC).

    Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.



    Privacy policy

    About Wikipedia

    Disclaimers

    Contact Wikipedia

    Code of Conduct

    Developers

    Statistics

    Cookie statement

    Mobile view



    Wikimedia Foundation
    Powered by MediaWiki