Beatrice L. Frank

MEMOIRS

When I studied at the Moscow Conservatory

and my return to the United States

Looking back through my life in music I have come to realize it is time to recall the story of how this life came to be and some of the people who have made it what it has been.  I must tell, first of all, who my parents were and how I inherited the music ability that I posess.

My parents were born in the Ukraine, my father in Odessa and my mother in Ekaterinoslav. I remember my father playing the violin but only for his own pleasure. My mother used to tell me about her father who passionately loved performing but this was out of the question for most Jewish young people in those years and he became a tailor, as did many Jewish young men who had to earn a living.

My father was conscripted to serve in the Czar's army but was able to escape and found his way to a ship and sailed to America; this must have been in about 1910. He arrived in New York City like hundreds before and after him and worked as a printer most of his life. He must have been apprenticed to this trade while still in Russia. My mother decided to emigrate also but she often told me that her father said that she was not to hesitate and return home to Russia if she was not happy in her new country.

Of course not many emigrants returned to Russia after arriving in what was called the Goldene Medina- the country where the streets were said to be paved with gold. My mother often told me the story of her first few days in New York there she had no relatives and was met by the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society. These people found her a furnished room and also a job in a Women's Waist Factory. She was to have started work there the very next workday --Monday, having arrived the week before but over the weekend everyone learned of the tragedy that befell other unfortunate young women who had been employed by this factory - the Triangle Waist Factory. It was my mother's good fortune to have been spared her life in this way.

I remember hearing that my mother found a friend aboard the ship who was to be her future sister-in-law. Her brother (later my father) had emigrated earlier. After they settled in their new homes they remained friends and my parents were thus introduced to one another and were married within the year. I was born five years later. My aunt whom we called "Sonya" was to prove to be my surrogate mother. She always was close to us and it is thanks to her that I later had the opportunity to travel to Moscow to live and study. 

I had a happy childhood. My sister Lillian was born twenty months after me and both of us enjoyed encouragement in our many activities. My parents were hard-working people and my mother augmented the family income by sewing. However they did all they could that we should not become "street children" as they referred to the children who spent all their time playing on the street outdoors while we practiced our piano lessons at home and attended Yiddish School twice weekly.

My sister joined a dance class taught by a devotee of the Isadora Duncan School and before I was thirteen years of age I became the accompanist for the group. I remember the young woman who taught the group asked me to improvise a waltz rhythm and I was fortunate to have become familiar with the Schubert Waltzes but I had little other experience.  However when the teacher asked for a two-four rhythm I provided something of my own although I had not yet studied harmony and I now look back with humor when the teacher turned to me and exasperatedly asked if I couldn't vary my harmonies a little so that there might be something other than the tonic and dominant. I didn't really know what else to do at that time but I did look for other music and very soon was able to provide more varied accompaniment which satisfied the teacher. In time I began to model my improvisations on this music.

 I should mention here that in those days it was rare that piano teachers would introduce improvisation as many teachers do today. I was sufficiently musical to be able to create the music for the particular movements the teacher was demonstrating. This was very important, of course, all through the years that I worked either as accompanist or in related fields.

My mother had a younger bachelor brother who emigrated later and was a skilled craftsman at making shoes. He made it possible for me to have lessons with a private teacher, a young woman who was part of a group of other young people interested in classical music. We began to accumulate an extensive library of what was then the only kind of recordings available, namely the 12-inch shellac Red-Seal recordings. This circle of friends attended opera performances at the Old Metropolitan, probably more often only able to afford the cheaper standing-room tickets which sometimes meant long waits on line after working a full day.  In this way I became acquainted with a wide variety of music: chamber, vocal, symphonic, piano as well as opera.

In later years when I began to accompany instrumentalists or vocalists I would be pleasantly surprised to discover so many old "friends" in the repertory.    My first piano teacher would have annual Spring Recitals and at these events my uncle would be the official escort and host, and I earned the reward for performing at these student recitals: a new dress my mother would make for the occasion and a bouquet of flowers from my uncle Boris. My sister also studied but her true talent lay in drawing and creating poetry.  When I entered high school I heard piano music that other students would play for one another much of which was completely unknown to me and I began to wonder why my teacher had never introduced this music to me: Schumann, Schubert etc. I announced to my mother that I would not study with this teacher anymore. The repertoire I studied heretofore was limited to lots of scales, the Lichner Sonatinas, some Bach Inventions, the Haydn e minor Sonata, some Lyrical Pieces by Grieg, "The Flatterer" by Cecil Chaminade, the Delibes "Pizzicato Polka", the ever popular "Tarantella" by Pieczonka and similar early grade materials.

I also performed a duet - the Liszt second Hungarian Rhapsody with a partner at one of the annual recitals.  I cannot recall much else, but I felt keenly that void in my repertoire when I would hear other people play at school.  When I told my mother of my decision she express any objection to my decision to discontinue study with my present teacher. From this time on I was to make my own decisions with regard to my future music study. My teacher came to see my mother. I listened to their conversation from another room as I was understandably unable to confront her during this visit. She said that she would gladly have referred me to another teacher if she had known I wished to make a change.

Faced with the quest for someone with whom to study I asked the students whom I heard play at school whom they studied with and I decided to make an appointment with the Drozdoff studio in upper west side Manhattan. This was the family of Vladimir and Anna Drozdoff, former pupils of Anna Essipova in St. Petersburg and their two children Paul and Natalie.  In this city apartment there were four grand pianos and after I talked with Madam Drozdoff she accepted me as her student. 

The repertoire I studied for the approximately two years included Bach Three-Part Inventions, the Tchaikovsky Seasons, The Raff La Fileuse and one or two Grieg pieces, of which I performed March of the Dwarfs at one of the annual recitals. Madam required that I transpose the Inventions but I don't recall ever being taught how to go about doing this.  

I learned them in their original key and relied on my ear and played the transposed Invention at the next lesson.  The annual student recitals were held at International House in upper west side Manhattan off Riverside Drive. Since there were four studios of students to schedule for performance the recitals began early on Friday of a weekend, lasting from early mid-morning to late afternoon, continuing on Saturday and ending on Sunday. 

I had to discontinue study with Madam Drozdoff because my parents were not able to afford lessons. My father sat down with me one afternoon and although he never used the words "you cannot have lessons" he simply said: " I cannot afford to pay for lessons any longer so if you want to continue studying you will have to find a way to do so." Again I began my inquiries among the students at high school and learned that there were a number of Music School Settlements in the city and for whatever reason I can not recall I selected the Third Street Music School Settlement on the east side downtown Manhattan. I called the school and made an appointment to play for the director, at that time Margurite Valentine. I didn't know anything about preparation for audition so I pulled out the most recent Bach Invention that I had studied independently and selected the Chopin Prelude in A major for contrast and that was that. This was to be an audition for a scholarship and

I came at the time that we arranged and played for Miss Valentine. She was very kind and only said:" You know, Beatrice, to play Bach you need to prepare the work very carefully." I don't remember anything else she might have said. What was important was that she accepted me but assigned me to another teacher. I spent about three years there and recall having taken a test at the end of one semester playing arpeggios in root, first and second inversions. In addition to a weekly private piano lesson with Miss Vera Giles there was a class with Mrs. Sylvia Lopez who taught improvisation using the Schlieder method.  I remember Mrs. Lopez fondly because of her warm personality.   In the years ahead when I was at the Moscow Conservatory and attended harmony, theory, dictation classes I was always the first to complete the dictation assignment and was the envy of the class, all of whom were younger than I and, consequently less experienced.

However here my Russian Opportunity was about to be realized. One of our relatives in Moscow was to come to the USA with a group of other administrators who were in the Oil Industry in the USSR. Many such groups traveled here in those days to study methods of production and administration. We had been corresponding with my aunt Sonia who had returned to Russia in 1929 to "build Socialism". I will have to devote a separate chapter to this remarkable person another time.

However at the time that the cousin-by-marriage was coming here my aunt was working on her Doctorate in Early Childhood Education at one of the Pedagogical Institutes in Moscow. She wanted me to be able to come to Moscow to study. When I graduated from high school I had very little ambition to go on to college.  Since my parents could not afford to provide the means I would need even if I were to attend any of the city's free colleges the decision was simple for us: I only wanted to play the piano and I was earning money accompanying dance groups, vocalists and instrumentalists.

My aunt was still studying and wasn't in a position to have me live with her. She had a room in the university Institute dormitory but she didn't earn enough to support me. She and the cousin's husband, Pyotr Feodorovich planned, therefore that he would share the invitation with her. A resident visa to come to live and study in Moscow had to be submitted by the individual who would be responsible for the new arrival. The visa took what seemed an interminable time to arrive but it  finally did, in 1935. During the summer before we received this visa I was able to work at a summer recreation playground which was administered by the public school system and thus earned the munificent sum of $110, which was almost enough to buy my ticket from New York by boat to London and from there over the North and Baltic Seas to Leningrad! A copy of the receipt we were given upon my parents' payment of the amount due for the cost of the trip is shown here -total $117.50!

Everyone thought my parents were out of their minds to allow their daughter of 19 to sail off alone to that far-off land.  Their hope, naive as it seems now was that once I would be living in Moscow and would complete my training and establish myself and begin to earn my own living they might be able to return to their homeland eventually. Of course nothing of the kind happened. I did, indeed, travel across the Atlantic for almost six sea-sick days on the British liner "Acquitania" and arrived safely in Southhampton where I found my way somehow to the port where I embarked on the Russian (much smaller) steamer which brought me to Leningrad, where my devoted aunt was there to meet me.

We spent a few days visiting relatives who were alive at that time. One of these, a little old lady (or so she seemed to me at that time) recommended when I come to the Conservatory that I "go right to the Meisterschule, never mind the Conservatory". The Meisterschule was a Special School for the Gifted and many of its student body were tots from the age of four. I learned very soon that this was not where I belonged. It wasn't until some months later that I learned about the various kinds of music schools. 

I thus settled in with my new family: Pyotr Feodorovich, Mira (his wife and my father's cousin), Margarita, their then nine year-old daughter and the grandfather whom we all called "dyedushka".   They lived in what was considered a spacious apartment in the center of the city. The apartment was in a four-story walk-up building and theirs was on the floor one flight up. There was a large bedroom in which Mira, her husband and the child slept ; the smaller bedroom was for the grandfather. The housekeeper slept in an alcove in the kitchen. There was a narrow lavatory in the center hallway, separate from the bathroom which had a wash basin, a tub and a gas heater for hot water. This was usual in homes in Europe. There was a rather spacious family room which had the lovely Beckstein grand, a divan on which I slept, a dining room table, chairs and large commode where the tableware, etc. was stored.

I had arrived in October, 1935 and my aunt had me adjust slowly to my new environment. I took my meals with my new relatives and after about a month Sonia arranged an audition with the Conservatory. Now I have to confess that the kind of training I had, when compared with the standards of the Russian Conservatory left much to be desired. However, again the panel who heard me and had the task of accepting or turning me down decided to accept me based, I imagine, on my musicality. I realized much later how wise they were in having assigned me not to the Conservatory but, rather to the preparatory College, also referred to as the Tekhnikum.

I remember the remark made to my aunt by one of the members on the audition panel after I had played a movement of the Beethoven First Sonata in f minor: " We hear that she is very musical but we cannot detect what school she was trained in".   "School" ? whatever did they mean? It wasn't until years later that I understood what they referred to by this term.  I later appreciated their decision to have me study at the Tekhnikum. They took into consideration the fact that I would be learning the language and attending classes and that this would be a great deal to have to cope with in addition to preparing weekly lessons at the piano. 

At the time I arrived relations with foreigners were very favorable and they were very eager to make study available to me. Students at higher institutions of learning were paid monthly stipends to help them with their daily expenses. Most students lived at home in the city or at the dormitories if they were from other cities. Tuition was free and they offered me the monthly stipend as well, but my aunt explained that I would manage without this. We both felt that having free study was enough. Before long my resourceful aunt found work for me. 

There was, first of all, the famous Park of Culture and Rest which offered many kinds of recreational programs and I fit right in for accompanying Classes in Western Dance. I could play popular music and my sister sent me lots of new music from time to time. In those days music wasn't expensive and when I received this new music it caused great excitement. I also received a book published by the Arthur Murray Dance Studios, which I later sold to one of the dance instructors.  After a while this Dance Instructor invited me to accompany him at other classes, one of which was a class at the Composers Union where these world-renowned composers such as Tikhon  Khrenikov, Dmitri Kabalevsky and many others learned to Fox-Trot, etc. Again I played lots of American popular music, which was something none of these world-famous composers could do.    

I also acquired private students of English and traveled to their apartments which were located in all parts of the city. I was young and nothing was too hard to do. Trolley trips in snowy winter evenings meant nothing to me. I always had rubles to spend. I remember opening a savings account in one of the local bank branches in mid-town, and found it convenient to deposit money as I collected it from my work, or to drop in and get some cash when I needed it. 

There was a club in mid-town for foreigners living in Moscow. My aunt learned about it and suggested I drop in to meet people. There were lots of people I met there who had come to work in Moscow at the invitation of the government and they brought their families with them. In this way I met many of these young people and their parents. There was a Choral Ensemble organized by the  club for the different national groups. Ours had rehearsals each week and also had many opportunities to perform for other groups in the city.

However I found very soon that trying to practice at my relatives' apartment wasn't always convenient. I was also expected to teach the child English and hopefully give her piano lessons. I was willing but the child was not. There was another snag in the picture and that was the family's housekeeper. This simple country woman conspired with the child during after-school hours when the child would be home to disturb my work so I soon gave up. No one made much to-do about this and I soon began to look for alternative places to practice. I also found it time-consuming to get back to the apartment during the day when I had classes at school and playing and teaching commitments all over the city.

However things worked out better for me after I inquired among the people I met at the Club: was there anyone who knew where I could practice about an hour to an hour-and- a half in the morning hours. The deal I offered any of these good people who might accommodate me was that I would keep their instruments tuned periodically. In this way I worked out a regimen where I would be able  to travel to any far flung area to practice, then drop in for a snack at a Dairy shop on my way to my next scheduled activity--an English lesson or a class at school, or, hopefully a vacant room to practice further at school. All schools have a buffet and here I could have a cold "vinaigrette" salad which generally consisted of cold cooked sliced beets, possibly carrots, sliced potato and cucumber, tea, bread and hard boiled eggs - enough to stave off hunger for a few hours at least and, of course hot tea.

For the first semester I had been assigned to study with one of the eminent pianists, Theodore Gutman, who is still living. However he went on concert tours from time to time and his students had to have their lessons with his assistants. I had only one lesson with his assistant and I wasn't happy with this experience. The young man had a friend with him and I don't remember how much teaching went on. At about this time, and I had been studying about two or three months, my aunt asked me how things were coming along. She used to come to lessons with me and would translate for me, even though between demonstrating for me and my playing for him we really managed without having to talk much.

So when Professor Gutman left to tour and Sonia asked how things were coming along I again spoke up and announced that I enjoyed everything about school but I did not enjoy having to take lessons with an assistant. I also didn't really feel completely happy with the Professor either, to be honest. After the academic year was over I spent the summer in the country from time to time. My aunt and Mira's sister Vera ( both ladies were unmarried ) owned a cooperative cottage in the country, the family datcha. By this time my aunt was working as a Director of a Nursery School and the children moved as a group to the country during the summer. I would come there for a day or two when I wasn't with the family at their datcha. 

When the new school year began in September my aunt made an appointment well before classes were to begin and explained that I was having trouble communicating with Professor Gutman but that I was happy to be studying. I also earned good grades during the season past and I was expected to resume study in the Fall. Fortunately there was another fine Professor --Boris Borisovich Tietz who was English-speaking and was teaching Efrem Zimbalist's two children at this time while their father was visiting Russia. I began my new academic year, then, with Professor Tietz who could communicate with me in English.

By this time my aunt no longer had to accompany me to lessons. I was sufficiently acquainted with the language to get around alone and my new teacher was a wise person. His first words to me when I came for my first lesson were: " Beatrice, you have to learn Russian. So I plan to speak Russian with you but if I say anything you don't understand tell me and I shall explain that in English." Of course I never had to ask him to explain anything in English from then on. I understood him and he communicated everything to me that needed to be communicated. I loved lessons with him and I always felt I could bring him anything that seemed to be a problem and he he would help me solve it. The biggest problem I had always had to cope with was the inability to fulfill what seemed to be a universal requirement. I was warned before I left the Settlement Music School by Miss Valentine that I should be aware that unless I practiced four hours each day I would never "make it". This haunted me for years ! "make" what?  I didn't have any burning desire to make a concert career; at this time of my life I was happy to be doing what I loved most--studying and playing.

So one fine day I asked Boris Borisovich: what was I to do?  I had been hearing this four hours' talk for a long time but I honestly could not sit four hours at anything even though I dearly loved studying music. Here is where I learned that there is a solution (almost) to any problem if you put your mind to it. My wise teacher then asked me to describe how I spent my days. I described the routine: an hour or an hour and a half at one place, then to another to either give an English lesson or accompany a class somewhere, then to school for a subject or, if lucky to find a vacant room to domore practicing, and so on and on. " Well," said my wonderful teacher, "you really didn't have a problem at all.

Remember a person can concentrate only about forty-five minutes to an hour before this concentration ends. Just see that you finish what you set yourself to learn and see that you play what you have worked on better when you finish than you did when you started." And that was then end of that problem. At the end of the year when report cards were issued I made Excellent grades in every subject. The syllabus included the following subjects: 

Instrument lesson; once weekly for about an hour. Sometimes these lessons were at the teacher's home and were sometimes longer than an hour. 

Solfege; Theory; History of Music; Harmony:

Acoustics and Study of the Construction of the Piano

Piano Ensemble: the first year was with three other student pianists, two pianos-eight hands. I played lots of four hand music with my partner also. If I had remained for the following year I probably would have had opportunities for string or other ensemble playing.

Russian History

The Russian students were required to attend Civil Defense sessions weekly but as I was a foreigner I was excused.  At the end of each semester exams were held. The exams in Russian History and in Music History were oral. In my case the teachers asked me to read in English for the subject for the oral test and select a theme which I would report on as best as I could, using notes, if needed. I selected the Reforms of Peter the Great and I must have pulled this feat off as I received a grade of Satisfactory. I don't recall what the Music History question was but I was graded Excellent in this.

I must also include in all of this a twice-weekly session of over two hours for Russian language study with Madam Mitrova whom almost every English-speaking foreigner in Moscow knew and loved.  Our class consisted of five Americans and not all of these attended required classes in addition to their private instrument study. I never learned why this was so but, as a result I learned to read, write and speak the language fluently while I doubt if the others ever attained much more than a smattering of Russian to enable them to get about the city. However it was a wonderful opportunity nevertheless for the group to have been given this particular teacher.

Mme. Mitrova would outline her special Chart which showed the grammatical endings for nouns, verbs and adjectives and encouraged us to think in English and consult the chart in working out the grammatical endings needed. I must not overlook mention that Mme. Mitrova was almost completely blind. She would peer closely at what we wrote and suggest corrections. At the end of the semester she would invite someone from the Conservatory to hear us sing one of the popular patriotic songs of that period.  Mme. Mitrova would have coached us very carefully for weeks before, of course, ensuring that we pronounced the vowels distinctly. In Russian every letter is sounded and with her help we were learning where to put the proper accents. The "examiner" was very impressed and so were we.

Meanwhile in Europe things were not going at all well for most of the people. Even in Russia things generally were not going well but outwardly things looked quite normal.  In my own immediate family of cousins Pyotr Feodorovich was arrested suddenly and taken away and never heard from.  Lots of his associates we learned later also disappeared.  Mira and the housekeeper and the child continued to live in their own apartment for another year when Mira also was arrested one night. This was common for the wives of those people who had been in high administrative positions in almost every walk of life. The housekeeper had to leave, probably to work elsewhere and the child, now twelve years of age went to live with her aunt. I was legally permitted to remain a registered occupant of the apartment but we - the elderly grandfather and I - were given a room in a communal apartment in a distant part of the city.

I found it very inconvenient to go home just to sleep in the same room as Dyedushka and arranged with my aunt that I sleep on my aunt's small divan in my aunt's room at the Institute dormitory. No one ever checked on my move, fortunately, so I would come to my "legally registered address" once a week so that the neighbors would see me but I was with my aunt the rest if the time until I left to return home to the States.

Once during my period of study with Boris Borisovich he and his wife did go on tour. Professor Tietz' wife was the contralto Coretta Arle-Tietz and they were going on a concert tour. However Professor Tietz did not leave his students to assistants but sat down with me and together we looked through the syllabus of required repertoire to select two pieces for me to work out myself during the few weeks they would be away. I regret I gave this syllabus to somone I met after I returned home to New York. This was the famous pianist Alexander Borovsky who had been a pupil of Anna Esipova at the same time as my teacher Boris Borisovich Tietz. I selected an Etude by William Sterndale Bennett and the Handel Variations on "The Harmonious Blacksmith". 

My teacher complimented me on my choices and commented that he thought I would make a good teacher some day. Another time I came to a lesson full of admiration for one of the young women who had performed at the student recital that past weekend after having given birth to a baby not long before the recital day. I was very impressed with this and also with how she performed. These students who had played at this Recital were not only those of my teacher. When I came for my lesson after the recital and told him how impressed I was with this young woman's achievement he replied: " Ah, yes indeed. We teachers work and teach you students and then you get married and have children and put aside your piano playing. This young woman was the exception." Well I can tell you that this remark never left me and I was determined that I would never give up playing. 

But of course at that time how was I to understand that one could only be fortunate by luck or to be able to afford a housekeeper which would allow one the leisure of continuing to play and have a family too. I should mention with regard to having someone at home to care for children and household: Russian families generally have an elderly parent or both parents living with them so this is generally how this is handled.    Annual year-end exams took place as follows: students were assigned scheduled performance times in the recital hall at school. The required repertoire was as follows: An etude from the syllabus. This could be from Cramer, Czerny, Kullak and could be an octave etude or one that featured thirds or other aspect of technique. 

The First movement of a Sonata or the second and third movements. I regret that I don't recall what the occasion was that I performed the first movement of the Mozart d-minor K. 466. Concerto. Perhaps this was an option instead of the Sonatas at the year-end exams.   A Bach Prelude and fugue A Romantic work A Lyric piece I had discovered an unexpected stock of piano pieces by Cyril Scott in one of the music stores during the Spring before year-end exams and chose "Cherry ripe" as my lyrical selection. My teacher was delighted at my "find" when I brought the collection of about eleven pieces to show him.  He then asked if I would return to the store and buy him a set of these unusual pieces. They had been published in Kiev and as was usual, when this supply ran out probably were not reprinted again. 

I must mention here that free tickets to many concerts were available to students at school and I heard the leading pianists of those days, many of whom were the teachers of present-day concertizing pianists. In this way I also learned much of the great piano literature.   During my second summer I took a long train trip southwest of Moscow to the town of Konotop in the Ukraine where my mother's elder sister lived with her husband and two younger daughters aged 14 and five. Her husband was a physician in the town clinic and my aunt worked there also but in what  capacity I cannot recall. The girls' mames were Nadya, the elder,and Erra, the younger child. They had a live-in housekeeper, a local Ukrainian young woman who only spoke Ukrainian and the family and I conversed in Russian.

During the few weeks I was with them my aunt and her older daughter and I traveled to Dniepropetrovsk, formerly Ekaterinoslav, where my mother and family lived before she emigrated. We had come here to visit my grandmother with whom I had corresponded with in Yiddish for a few years before my arrival. We had a pleasant time visiting for a few days and then returned to Konotop and I left shortly after that. We didn't correspond much after I returned home to the USA because this aunt was not as fearless as was my aunt in Moscow who maintained a steady correspondence with us all her life until she died in 1985 at the age of 93.

During the summer of 1938 we watched with alarm as events in Europe took place which meant that hostilities might lead to war at any moment. I understood that if I remained, hoping to continue my education and go on to a career of some kind it was very much a question when I might be able to go home again and see my family. I wrestled with this all summer but finally had to make my own decision. I kept asking my aunt for help in resolving this dilemma but she was adamant: I had to make this decision myself and I can assure you it was painful. I really was enjoying my friends, among these were a few Russian fellow-students whom I loved and who liked me.

When I decided that I had to go home I was able to pay for my third-class ticket by selling my portable typewriter which my uncle Boris had bought for me before I sailed in 1935. Someone had mentioned to us that a portable typewriter would be a very important thing to own while living in Moscow and for $29 I became the owner of a Royal portable manual typewriter. I brought my machine to one of the Government Commission stores where one legally could buy or sell one's property and was paid 3000 rubles for it, which was just enough to pay for my through ticket, third class to New York City. The Foreign office that issued visas allowed me to purchase eleven American dollars which provided me with pocket money and my aunt accompanied me by overnight train to Leningrad where I embarked on a Russian steamer for Southhampton.

The passengers on the Russian steamer included a group on its way to make arrangements for the forthcoming Soviet Pavilion at the World's Fair to be held in Flushing Meadows,   New York in 1939. These were very friendly people and I was assured that they would arrange employment for me somewhere at their Pavilion. When the Fair opened I was operating one of the elevators in the cinema at their Pavilion until the Fair closed.  

The American dollars must have been very strong in those days as I was able to get quite a bit of mileage with the seemingly modest amount of money. I took the channel boat to France and then a train to Paris where I had relatives whom I had never met but who were happy to meet me when I looked  them up. I don't remember how I found a room for the few days I spent in Paris but I managed also to do a little shopping ( a very little shopping) and found a sheet music department in one of the shops. I bought the Durand edition of the Chopin Mazurkas and some other early music.

When it was time for me to sail I took the train from Paris to Cherbourg where the Queen Mary was docked but when I arrived there I learned that passengers were transported to the liner by tender from the port of Cherbourg, a very brief trip under an hour. To my surprise I found there were only two passengers making the transfer: I and another tall dour-looking gentleman whom I recognized as Sergei Rachmaninoff.

I could not let this occasion pass and not speak to him so I approached him, speaking in Russian and introduced myself.  He responded very briefly: "What can I do for you?" was all he said. I replied that I was on my way home after having studied almost three years in Moscow. This was the extent of our encounter. Much later , back at home I learned that Russians used to speak French with other Russians outside the immediate family and Russian only with intimates. I then realized that it may have been presumptuous of me to have approached him in Russian instead of in English. 

We arrived in October, exactly three years to the day that I had sailed in the opposite direction. In the years that followed I continued to teach and study at the Greenwich House Music School and to accompany dancers. I was able to study and play all my life, never having to give it up playing very much even during the first five years after my son was born. I didn't teach very much for the first five years of his childhood and when I resumed teaching it was away from home. A friend of mine who had a full week teaching schedule was moving to another state and turned over her students to me. I had to buy a car and learn to drive to all these pupils and began to leave my young son with a friendly neighbor but made it a practice to bring him a small present so he never seemed to resent my leaving him this way.

I kept up my correspondence with my dear aunt until her death. I have been in constant touch with my relative who was the child, Margarita, now a grandmother. I began my frequent visits in 1968 and made regular trips every few years until the last which was during the fateful month of August 1991. Margarita or one of her daughters would go about the city with me and invariably I would find some treasure in the main music store. These were, in particular two books which I brought home and translated later, the first was called "PIANISTI RASSKAZIVAYUT" an anthology of articles, reminiscences of Russian pianists of the past and of today while the second was CHOPIN AND THE RUSSIAN PIANO TRADITION by the contemporary pianist and critic Gennadi Tsipin. 

Regrettably my dear teacher, Professor Tietz did not live for us to meet again during any of my visits. During my visit in the eighties I went to see the school where I had been a student and was escorted through the buildings by the then-Director who asked me which part I was especially interested in. By this time the school had expanded somewhat and consisted of the Old and the N. Of course I was interested in the older part and as we walked through the hall he asked whom I had studied with when I was a student and, upon hearing that it was with Prof. Tietz he exclaimed that he, too, had been a student of his.

But of course I was there in the latter part of the thirties and he at least twenty years later ! I stopped to see an interesting display of pictures of former teachers and students, many who had been soldiers during the war. I remarked that I had a group photo that our class had taken together with Boris Borisovich and that when I would be home again I would have a copy made, which I did and sent to this Director. But in those years it was very unlikely that I would have a reply and I never did. These days people correspond freely and I am in touch with the author of the CHOPIN book which I translated and hope to have published.

Beatrice Luben Frank April 1993

Bea Frank, still teaching at 89