Bardas, Stefan, 1914-2008

Name: Stefan Bardas
Gender: Male
Race: White
Age: 26
Relationship to Draftee: Self (Head)
Birth Date: 27 Jun 1914
Birth Place: Berlin, Germany
Residence Place: Helena, Lewis and Clark, Montana, USA
Registration Date: 16 Oct 1940
Registration Place: Montana, USA
Employer: Carrole Colledge - Rev Emmet Riley
Weight: 115
Complexion: Dark
Eye Color: Gray
Hair Color: Black
Height: 5 5
Next of Kin: Luisa Luigia Bardas

...Some of the most gratifying moments in our lives come when we meet strangers and connect, hear their stories and are touched by them. The last thing I expected when I arrived at the hospital that day was that I’d meet someone like Maria Hilliard, supervisor of nuclear medicine at MCA.

After we sat down and she contacted the oncologist to let him know I’d arrived, we began visiting and found out we shared a bond as fellow adoptees. As Maria told me about how she’d been adopted in the Chicago area after she was born in 1951 and the remarkable story of her adoptive parents began to unfold, I quickly became engrossed.

My love of classical music and the fascinating history of Maria’s father, Stefan Bardas, drew me in. And, not only was her father a pianist — her mother, Luisa, who was born in Riva, Italy, was as well.

Maria told me that her father, born in 1914, was teaching piano at Northwestern University when she was adopted. He took a job in 1954 as a professor of music at North Texas State College in Denton, where he remained on faculty until 1980.

But as Maria and I waited for the doctor, she told me one of the most shocking chapters of her father’s life. If not for an incredible twist of fate, he might never have made it to the United States — or survived to be her father.

When he was about 19 (she believes he was in Germany), Stefan was in a train station and dropped his identification papers. A Nazi soldier picked them up, found and detained him, noting that he was a pianist. Stefan was given a choice: He could either perform for Hitler and earn his freedom, or he could be hauled away to a concentration camp. Maria said it was a painful decision for her father, but he grudgingly chose to perform for the Führer.

Stefan survived the Holocaust by attending school in Rome at the Conservatory of Saint Cecilia, earning his bachelor’s degree in music. There, he met Luisa, and they married after immigrating to the U.S. Maria said they both performed, and years later, gave private lessons to young children.

After arriving in New York, Stefan played popular music in piano bars and taught young students. He served as a piano teacher at Carroll College and Wesleyan University before joining the Northwestern faculty.

Another extraordinary memory Maria shared: When she was a young girl in the 1950s in Denton, the famed pianist Van Cliburn was her baby-sitter. She said he always read her stories about trains and let her jump on the bed before her parents came home. This must have been not long before, at age 23, Cliburn became a global sensation by winning the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958.

I asked Maria if her father performed with orchestras; she said he did some, but most of his performances were solo. Stefan was known worldwide for his mastery of all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, and for a fingering technique he developed for pianists with small hands. After retiring from North Texas, he continued to teach piano part time at El Paso Community College, and was an adjunct faculty member at New Mexico State University.

... In messages we’ve exchanged, Maria has told me that after her father passed away in 2008, his family spread his ashes in the Rocky Mountains in Estes Park because they reminded him of the Alps in Austria and Italy. She said her brother’s ashes are also there, and hers will be someday. Her mother is buried in her Italian home of Riva....

...The University of Tulsa College of Fine Arts has appointed Stefan Bardas, American-Austria concert pianist, as "artist in residence."

He will take up his residence in the autumn and continue his concert work, using Tulsa as a base.

Bardas has been a professor of piano at Northwestern University since 1944 and while there has appeared many times with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as official pianist. He was educated at the State Academy in Berlin, receiving his diploma in 1934. Then he received a three year scholarship for a master course under the noted Italian pianist, Alfred Casella, at the Royal Conservatory of St. Cecilia in Rome. He has also studied with Edwin Fisher, Artur Schnabel, and Ignaz Friedman...

..."the offer from Illinois Wesleyan came as a result of the concert Bardas presented this summer while attending the Northwestern School of Music in Evanston, Ill....

..."A trained and gifted musician, Bardas came to Carroll as a graduate of the Berlin Academy of Music, the St. Cecilia Conservatory of Music, and a pupil of such great piano masters as Edwin Fischer, Artur Schnabel, and Ignaz Friedman...

Bardas spoke as a friend: "Silvio and I had a lot in common. He loved to speak Italian with me, and he was often lonely -- he was like the 'cat around the soup.' So we had him over to dinner practically every two weeks. He was such a lovable person." Silvio very much respected and admired pianists who knew and performed all the Beethoven sonatas. Stefan Bardas was a relatively young man when he first took on that challenge...

Вилли Бардаc (нем. Willy Bardas; 17 февраля 1887, Вена — 29 сентября 1924, Неаполь) — австрийский пианист и музыкальный педагог. Племянник пианиста Отто Бардаса (1856—1930).

Биография
Учился в Берлине у Артура Шнабеля и Макса Бруха. Концертировал как пианист, выступал как аккомпаниатор (в частности, с Кэтлин Парлоу и с Берлинским вокальным квартетом, в составе которого пела его жена Тереза Бардас)[1]. С 1923 г. преподавал в Токио, где у него учился, в частности, Сабуро Морои. Написал книгу «К психологии техники фортепианной игры» (нем. Zur Psychologie der Klaviertechnik), опубликованную посмертно (1927) с предисловием Шнабеля[2].

Сын Вилли и Терезы, Штефан Бардас (нем. Stefan Bardas; 1914—2008), также стал пианистом и музыкальным педагогом, после Второй мировой войны жил и работал в США.

Stefan Bardas, 93, Professor Emeritus of music who worked at North Texas from 1955 to 1980, died April 29.

He was born in Germany to a musically prominent Austrian family and survived the Holocaust by attending school in Rome at the Conservatory of Saint Cecilia, earning his bachelor's degree in music during World War II.

After arriving in New York, he played popular music in piano bars and taught aspiring students. Before coming to North Texas as artist in residence, he served as a piano teacher at Carroll College, Wesleyan University and Northwestern University.

He was well known for his performances of the 32 pieces in the Beethoven Cycle of Sonatas and for the piano fingering technique he developed for pianists with small hands. He was one of fewer than 1,400 pianists worldwide carrying the distinction of "Steinway Artist."

After retiring from North Texas, he continued to teach piano part-time at El Paso Community College, was an adjunct faculty member at New Mexico State University at Las Cruces and taught private lessons....

Stefan Bardas passed away quietly, like the codetta of a Beethoven Sonata, with a perfect cadence in the appropriate key, confirming the tonality of his life and his death, on April 29, 2008, after a long and inspiring 93-year life dedicated to teaching the piano. He was preceded in death by spouses, Luisa Farina Bardas and Mary Louise Ivy Bardas. He is survived by his son, Claudio Franklin Bardas, and his daughter, Maria Constance Bardas Hilliard; step-children, Ivy Ramsey, John Thomas, Margaret Stewart, and Tom Thomas. Also grieving are his three grandchildren, Lisa Hilliard, Jason and Austin Bardas. Memorial services are scheduled for 10:00 A.M., Saturday, June 28, 2008, at Saint Clement's Episcopal Church, 810 North Campbell St., El Paso, TX. The family requests that donations be made to a memorial scholarship fund to be established at the University of North Texas this summer. Please contact the UNT Music Department for details.

Stefan Bardas, a member of a family of distinguished Austrian musicians, is the new resident pianist at the NTSC School of Music.

A native of Berlin, Germany, the pianist was first heard in Denton last March, when he was presented in concert under the auspices of the NTSC Fine Arts Committee. At that time he was a member of the Tulsa, Okla., University music faculty as resident artist.

Bardas holds the Abiturium Diploma from Realgymnasium in Berlin, the Artists Diploma from the Academy of Music in Berlin, the Piano-Certificate Conservatoio [sic] Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the master of Music degree from Illinois Wesleyan University.

He first came to the United States in 1938 and served as director of the music department at Carroll College, Helena, Mont., from 1939 until 1942. In 1942 he was made the head of the piano department at Illinois Wesleyan University and taught there until 1944 when he was appointed professor of music at Northwestern University. After eight years at Illinois Wesleyan, he was named artist in residence at Tulsa University.

While in Rome, Bardas held a three-year scholarship at Santa Cecilia where he studied under Alfredo Casella. From 1947 until 1950 he was official pianist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has been soloist in several premiere performances of modern works under such conductors as Rodzinski, Ansermet and Kubelik... His Town Hall debut in New York was made in 1949...