Yara Bernette
| Yara Bernette | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Bernette Epstein |
| Born |
March 14, 1920 Boston, Massachusetts, US |
| Died | March 30, 2002 (aged 82) São Paulo, Brazil |
| Genres | Classical, Romantic |
| Occupation(s) |
|
| Instruments | Piano |
| Years active | 1938–1995 |
Bernette Epstein, known as Yara Bernette (March 14, 1920 – March 30, 2002), was a Brazilian classical pianist. Considered one of Brazil's foremost pianists of the twentieth century, she achieved international renown for her performance of Classical and Romantic works, notably those of Rachmaninoff, Mozart, Chopin, Debussy, and Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, in concerts in Brazil, Europe, and the United States. She chaired the piano department at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, Germany, from 1972 to 1992.
Bernette Epstein was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Russian-Jewish immigrants Morris Epstein and his wife Dorothy Mandelbaum Epstein. When she was six months old, her family moved to São Paulo, Brazil, where she grew up and lived most of her life. She attended the Ginásio Oswaldo Cruz, graduating in 1937.
She began studying piano at the age of six under her uncle, José Kliass, a leading piano teacher in Brazil who was the student of German concert pianist Martin Krause. Kliass continued as her sole instructor for 20 years. Bernette performed for the first time at age eleven in a children's concert at Sao Paulo's Theatro Municipal, being the youngest pianist ever to perform in a government-sponsored music festival.
She made her professional musical debut in 1938 with the Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo (Municipal Symphony Orchestra of São Paulo). In 1942, with the encouragement of Polish-American classical pianist Arthur Rubinstein and Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau, she made her United States debut at New York’s Town Hall. Reviews such as these were forthcoming for the blonde-haired performer:
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