Variety

Friday, 15 June 2001

Yaltah Menuhin

Pianist Yaltah Menuhin, younger sister of the late violinist Yehudi Menuhin, died June 9 at an undisclosed location, The Times of London reported. She was 79.

The youngest of three musically gifted Menuhin siblings, she grew up traveling the world as Yehudi established his early career. However, like her sister, Hephzibah, she took up piano and studied with such teachers as Marcel Ciampi in Paris, Armando Silvestri in Rome and Carl Friedberg at Juilliard School in New York.

Performing regularly as both a soloist and a chamber player, she made a joint New York debut with violinist Israel Baker in 1951 and performed with violist Michael Mann, son of Thomas Mann. In the 1960's she began a piano duo with her husband Joel Ryce. A previous marriage to Benjamin Rolfe ended in divorce.

At Yehudi Menuhin's 50th-birthday concert at London's Royal Festival Hal, he conducted a performance of the Mozart Concerto for Three Pianos, which she performed with her sister and his son, Jeremy Menuhin. Even after her retirement from the concert stage, she continued to perform, playing a program of Chopin and Debussy Preludes at the Orwell Park School in Ipswich, England, a few days before her death

Menuhin is survived by two sons.

Eileen Kowalski