Hephzibah Menuhin

Hephzibah Menuhin
Hephzibah and Yehudi Menuhin (1963)
Born	(1920-05-20)20 May 1920 San Francisco, California, United States
Died	1 January 1981(1981-01-01) (aged 60) London, United Kingdom
Spouse(s)	Lindsay Nicholas (m.1938) Richard Hauser (m.1955)
Children	Kronrod Nicholas Marston Nicholas Clara Menuhin-Hauser
Parent(s)	Moshe Menuhin Marutha Menuhin

Hephzibah Menuhin (20 May 1920 – 1 January 1981) was an American-Australian pianist, writer, and human rights campaigner. She was sister to the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and to the pianist, painter, and poet Yaltah Menuhin. She was also a gifted linguist and writer, co-authoring several books and writing many papers with her second husband, Sir Richard Hauser.

Hephzibah Menuhin was born in San Francisco. Through her father Moshe Menuhin, a former rabbinical student and anti-Zionist writer, Menuhin was descended from a distinguished rabbinical dynasty. Her mother Marutha has been described as "dominant and controlling". The Menuhin children had little formal schooling. Hephzibah spent only five days at a San Francisco school, where she was classed as educationally backward. Her parents took her out of school and taught her to read and write at home. She started studying the piano at the age of four, initially with Judith Blockley, a specialist in teaching young children, and later with Lev Shorr, a Russian-born grand-pupil of Theodor Leschetizky and future teacher of Leon Fleisher. She gave her first recital in San Francisco in 1928 when she was eight. She then studied with Rudolf Serkin in Basel and Marcel Ciampi in Paris. In 1933 she and Yehudi made their first recording (a Mozart sonata), which won the Candid Prize as best disc of the year. Her public debut was on 13 October 1934, at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. The siblings performed in the New York Town Hall and Queen's Hall in London, and Hephzibah gave solo recitals in most of the major cities of Europe and America.

In March 1938, after a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, Bernard Heinze introduced Hephzibah and Yehudi to the Australian brother and sister Lindsay and Nola Nicholas, heirs to the Australian ‘Aspro’ pharmaceutical fortune. In quick succession, Yehudi (aged 21) married Nola, and Hephzibah (aged 17) married Lindsay, abandoning her plans to give her debut recital in Carnegie Hall, New York. She moved with Lindsay Nicholas to his grazing property "Terrinallum" near Derrinallum in south-western Victoria, where she spent the next 13 years. She started a travelling library for children and bore two sons, Kronrod and Marston Nicholas. However, while she curtailed her musical career, she did not entirely abandon it. She played with the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras and she and Yehudi played together many times during his 1940 tour of Australia. She also gave solo recitals, supported local activities such as the Griller Quartet, and was involved with Richard Goldner in the foundation of Musica Viva Australia. She also befriended many displaced European musicians who had emigrated to Australia. During this time she played the Australian premiere of Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto. Both the Menuhins' marriages to the Nicholases ended in divorce. Her two children remained with their father Lindsay Nicholas.