Gisella Neu

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Gisella Neu
A teenaged girl with fair skin and dark hair, cut in a bob, wearing a dark dress with a lace collar detail; seated, holding a violin
Gisella Neu, from a 1927 publication
Born
Gisela Neu

April 25, 1908
DiedDecember 22, 1989(1989-12-22) (aged 81)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other namesGisella Neu-Fishler
OccupationViolinist

Gisella Neu (April 25, 1908 – December 22, 1989), later Gisella Neu-Fishler, was an American violinist, born in Austria-Hungary.

Early life and education[edit]

Neu was born in Konskau in Austria-Hungary (now Konská, part of Třinec in the Czech Republic). She was sometimes described as Hungarian.[1][2] She studied at the Budapest Conservatory of Music,[3] and in the United States with A. H. Trouk.[4]

Career[edit]

Neu performed in Budapest, Vienna, and Havana as a child.[5][6] She performed in New York City for several years, between spring 1925[7][8] and 1930.[9][10] She was also heard on radio programs in this period.[11]

The New York Times reported in March 1929 that Neu's "intonation is generally accurate, her tone warm and ample in volume, and her interpretations are musicianly if not notably brilliant or individual in style."[12] In December 1929, the Times found that her "extreme and manifest nervousness... made it difficult to arrive at a true estimate of her capabilities."[13] At the latter recital, she gave a first performance of a work by Max Fishler, a fantasia dedicated to her.[13]

Neu continued as a violinist after she married Fishler in 1930.[14] She performed at a lecture on Wagner in 1935,[15] at a benefit concert in 1937,[16] and as a soloist at a 1948 concert for the International Music Lovers Guild.[17] In the 1950s and 1960s, as Gisella Neu-Fishler, she performed in Southern California.[3][18][19]

Personal life[edit]

Neu married philosopher and writer Max Fishler in 1930; she also became a naturalized United States citizen that year. Her husband died in 1981,[20] and she died in 1989, at the age of 81, in Los Angeles.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Gisella Neu". The American Hebrew. 122 (16): 543. February 24, 1928.
  2. ^ "Gisella Neu". Musical Courier. 90 (11): 33. March 12, 1925 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ^ a b "Spinoza to be Theme of Speaker at JCC". Lake Elsinore Valley Sun-Tribune. 1952-03-13. p. 9. Retrieved 2024-05-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Professor A. H. Truck" The Violinist 43(2)(August 1928): 59.
  5. ^ "Would Win in U.S." The Knoxville Journal. 1926-09-12. p. 22. Retrieved 2024-05-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Gisella Neu". Social (in Spanish). 10 (2): 42. February 1924 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ^ "Music Notes" Times Union (February 22, 1925): 5. via Newspapers.com
  8. ^ "Brownsville Labor Lyceum (advertisement)". The Standard Union. 1925-12-06. p. 14. Retrieved 2024-05-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "With the Orchestras" The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (April 6, 1930): 72. via Newspapers.com
  10. ^ "Neu Recital". Times Union. 1929-12-27. p. 24. Retrieved 2024-05-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Gisella Neu, Soloist" The Standard Union (August 13, 1928): 17. via Newspapers.com
  12. ^ "Gisella Neu Heard; Youthful Violinist Gives a Musicianly Performance". The New York Times. 1929-03-18. p. 80. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  13. ^ a b "Gisella Neu in Recital; Violinist Gives Ambitious Program at the Town Hall". The New York Times. 1929-12-27. p. 26. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  14. ^ "Gisella Neu, Violinist". Musical America. 51 (7): 20. April 10, 1931 – via Internet Archive.
  15. ^ "Music Notes". The New York Times. May 19, 1935. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  16. ^ "Music Notes". The New York Times. November 24, 1937. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  17. ^ "Music Lovers Program; International Guild's Concert Is Directed by Ernst Fischer". The New York Times. November 14, 1948. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  18. ^ Houdek, Dick. "Classical Music Previews" Valley Times (April 8, 1964): 22. via Newspapers.com
  19. ^ "Los Angeles". The American Theosophist: 235. September 1952 – via Internet Archive.
  20. ^ "Fishler, Max (death notice)". The Los Angeles Times. 1981-12-06. p. 53. Retrieved 2024-05-23 – via Newspapers.com.