Arpad Sandor

Hungarian pianist Arpád Sándor was the preferred accompanist of Jascha Heifetz and several other giants of the time. He was revered and sought-after by both vocalists and instrumentalists for his dynamic and supportive style. He was born in 1896 in Budapest, and his father, Vilmos Stern, was a chandelier maker. He graduated from the Budapest Academy of Music in 1914, where he studied piano with Béla Bartók and composition with Zoltán Kodály. In 1916, he made his debut in Budapest and performed a tour in the United States. The following year, he began an additional career working as an editor for the Simfónia magazine. Sándor moved to Berlin in 1922, where he started writing art and music criticism for the Berliner Tageblatt, an influential liberal newspaper. For the next four years, he toured the U.S. with tenor Louis Graveure, and he also accompanied soprano Dusolina Giannini and violinist Fritz Kreisler. By this time, he had already decided that being an accompanist was his favorite role as a pianist, and it became his specialty. When Hitler rose to power in 1933, Sándor resigned from his position at the Berliner Tageblatt and moved to the United States, where he recorded and toured with Heifetz, Kreisler, and Lily Pons. He also became known as a vocal coach and worked with soprano Jarmila Novotna on several occasions. He married Klára Blech Lujza in 1934, and they remained together for five years. He remarried in 1943, to Helga Bodenheimer, and also became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He continued a very successful career as an accompanist, appearing with Lisa Della Casa and Ruggiero Ricci, and he performed in the American debut recital of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in 1953. An injury to one of his arms in 1968 led to his retirement, and then in 1970 he moved back to Hungary. Sándor spent his final years in seclusion and passed away in 1972 at his home in Budapest.