MARTA MILINOWSKI
1885 - 1970
Marta Milinowski was Professor of Music at Vassar College from
1930 until her retirement in 1950. Born in Berlin of a German
father and American mother, she began her musical studies in
Hannover when she was but six and a half. Her first piano teacher
was Maria Reinecke, sister of the famous conductor, composer, and
pianist, Carl Reinecke. In 1899, the family left Germany to set-
tle in Buffalo, New York where Marta prepared for college at the
Masten Park High School and at Buffalo Seminary and continued her
piano studies with Mrs. Frank Davidson. In 1902 she returned to
Germany for a year of study at the Hochschule fflr Musik in Berlin.
Such was Marta Mi1inowski's preparation when, in 1903, following
her mother's example, she entered Vassar College. She completed
the course in three years instead of the required four and was
thus able to spend her entire junior year in Paris where she studied
piano with Maurice Moszkowski and attended classes at the Sorbonne.
After graduating with academic honors and membership in Phi Beta
Kappa, she continued her studies with Buonamici in Boston, and
with Breithaupt in Berlin, and began her long association as stud-
ent, friend, and subsequent biographer of Teresa Carrého, the
famed woman pianist who was one of the most able and colorful
musicians of her age.
Her debut as a pianist was in 1910 with the Berlin Philharmonic
under Ernst Kunwald. Of her performance of three concerti, the
Mozart A major, Beethoven C minor, and Schumann A minor, the
press called her a "remarkable pianistic talent" whose work was
"intelligent in conception and clear in form."
Soon after her return from Europe in 1913 Miss Milinowski settled
in Lake Forest, Illinois where she founded and directed the Lake
Forest University School of Music and was appointed Professor of
Music at Lake Forest College. There she remained until 1930,
when, upon the retirement of Kate Chittenden with whom she had
studied during her Vassar years, Marta Milinowski was appointed
Professor of Music at Vassar. In a note to President MacCracken,
Professor Gow noted that he and Professor Dickinson had found her
"alive to the problems of handling applied music in college and
interested in working them out."
MARTA MILINOWSKI - continued
At Vassar, her teaching and her many recitals in the newly
opened Skinner Hall won her the respect and admiration of the
comunity. She also found time to bring to fruition her bio-
graphy of Carrefio on which she had been at work for some years.
This was published by Yale University Press in 1940 "in cele-
bration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of Vassar College."
Retiring from.Vassar in 1950, Marta Milinowski simply trans-
ferred her activities from "gown to town." That very year
she appeared as piano soloist with, and accepted the presidency
of, the Dutchess County Philharmonic Orchestra, an ailing organ-
ization which she helped transform into the present Hudson Valley
Philharmonic Orchestra. And for a full fifteen years she shared
her rich musical experience with innumerable students from the
Poughkeepsie area. Although failing physical and mental health
at last forced her to terminate professional activity, Marta
Milinowski was able, throughout her declining years, to main-
tain the same warm and positive manner which had been character-
istic of her. She died in Poughkeepsie October l, 1970.
Respectfully submitted,
Margaret G. Myers
Professor Emeritus of Economics
A Earl W. Groves
Professor of Music, Chairman
Faculty Meeting
May 17, 1972