Yaltah Menuhin

[iainphil]

Yaltah Menuhin's memory has been honoured with a memorial fund in her name. The objective of the fund: to (help) develop the talents of young pianists who have already given proof of their outstanding musical ability and promise in the practice of their art, by means of an award and a bursary.
The Yaltah Menuhin Award will be given to the first-prize winner in one of the categories of the Young Pianist Foundation Competition, which is held in Amsterdam biennially. In addition, the Yaltah Menuhin Bursary will be awarded for the first time in 2003 to a young piano student, again in conjunction with the YPF. The reason we have chosen to make the award and bursary available via the Young Pianist Foundation, is really quite simple: the primary objective of the YPF, lending a helping hand to young pianists on their way to the major international stages, closely matches the objective we have set for the Yaltah Menuhin Award. The YPF has on its Council such pianists as Martha Argerich, Alfred Brendel, Evgeny Kissin, Mistsuko Uchida, Krystian Zimerman and Emanuel Ax; Vladimir Ashkenazy is Patron of the Foundation.

One of Yaltah's former students, the Greek pianist Lambis Vassiliadis, has recently been appointed Professor of Piano at the University of Corfu, and is planning to organize a piano festival in March 2003, under the name "Yaltah Menuhin Piano Forum". This will include seminars, master classes, lectures and recitals. Faculty will be invited from partner universities all over the world. He hopes to set up a special prize in Yaltah's name and create a direct link to the YMMF and the Young Pianist Foundation Competition.

A website dedicated to Ms Menuhin can be found on www.yaltahmenuhin.nl.