Ethel Leginska

Ethel Liggins (13 April 1886 – 26 February 1970) was a British pianist, conductor and composer. A student of Theodor Leschetizky, she became widely known as the ‘Paderewski of woman pianists’ and (from 1923) established herself as one of the first female conductors. She studied composition with Rubin Goldmark and Ernest Bloch, and conducting with Eugene Goossens, Robert Heger and Gennaro Papi and conducted many of the world's leading orchestras from the mid-1920s. She was a pioneer of women's opportunity in music performance, composition and conducting. Education and marriage Ethel Liggins was born in Hull, Yorkshire, England, to Thomas and Annie Peck Liggins. With support from wealthy patron Mary Emma Wilson, the wife of the shipping magnate Arthur Wilson, she attended the Hoch conservatory in Frankfurt, where she studied piano under James Kwast, and composition under Bernhard Sekles and Iwan Knorr. She also studied in Vienna with the famed Polish pianist and professor, Theodor Leschetizky. She made her debut as a pianist in London in 1902 at the age of 16. In 1905 she went on tour in Australia, and from 1906 performed in Europe under the stage name Ethel Leginska, at the suggestion of British socialite Lady Maud Warrender (the wife of Sir George Warrender). At that time the best top-class musicians were Polish, hence the Polish-sounding name "Leginska" considered advantageous to the development of the young pianist musical career. She kept that name throughout her career and upon her debut in the United States she was dubbed by the press "The Paderewski of women pianists". In 1907 Leginska married the composer Emerson Whithorne, whom she had met when they both studied in Vienna. They would sometimes perform together, with him playing the second part in two-piano pieces on her recitals and from the time they married through 1909 him serving as her concert manager.