View source for Ossip Gabrilowitsch

Ossip Gabrilowitsch was born on 7 Feb. 1878 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Aged ten and considered a child prodigy, he was admitted to the St. Petersburg Conservatory to study piano and later took lessons with Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna. When the Clemens family stayed in [[Vienna]], [[Clara Langdon Clemens]] became one of Leschetizky’s pupils as well and  she met Gabrilowitsch for the first time at a dinner party in April 1898 (see [https://www.zotero.org/groups/4437667/mtxdigital/items/97PABR4V Dolmetsch 147]). Afterwards, Ossip Gabrilowitsch and Clara Clemens met repeatedly and got engaged, but the death of [[Olivia Langdon Clemens]] in 1904 put a halt to the relationship until Clara Clemens re-established the connection in 1909, when she invited Gabrilowitsch to [[Redding/Stormfield]] to recuperate after a surgery (see [https://www.zotero.org/groups/4437667/mtxdigital/items/FIZ6WARP Rasmussen et al. 2:692]). Shortly after, the couple renewed the engagement and the marriage ceremony followed on 6 Oct. 1909.

[[File:Gabrilowitsch.jpg|frameless|left|{{File:Gabrilowitsch.jpg}}]]
The couple decided to live in Europe, where Gabrilowitsch had a promising career as a pianist and conductor. They returned to the US briefly in 1910 to be with Samuel Clemens when he died, to arrange his [[Funeral|funeral]], and to close down the house. The Gabrilowitsch’s only child, a girl named Nina, was born during this time at Stormfield.

Back in Europe, Ossip Gabrilowitsch resumed his work as a conductor in Munich for a few years before the beginning of the First World War convinced him to return to the US with his wife and daughter. There, he worked for the Philadelphia Symphony and later the Symphony Orchestra in Detroit, earning enough to “allow Clara to save what she received from her father’s estate” ([https://www.zotero.org/groups/4437667/mtxdigital/items/FIZ6WARP Rasmussen et al. 2:693]).

Ossip Gabrilowitsch died on 14 Sep. 1936, aged 58, from stomach cancer and was buried in [[Elmira/Woodlawn Cemetery]], Elmira.



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