Maria Donska

Maria Donska, pianist: born Lodz, Poland 3 September 1912; died 20 December 1996 She was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1912 and was already performing at the age of seven. She made her concerto debut in 1923 and three years later went to study with the celebrated Austrian pianist Artur Schnabel in Berlin. There too she met her lifelong partner Leonora ("Baba") Speyer. In 1932 she participated in the Chopin competition in Warsaw and was awarded a Diploma of Honour. Donska entered the Royal College of Music as a student in 1936. There she was awarded several medals, including the Hopkinson Medal and the Chappell Gold Medal (1937). In the 1950s and 1960s she gave two complete cycles of 32 Beethoven sonatas on the South Bank and at the Wigmore Hall.