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E. of Greenfield Berkley 548-3650 PA—MCI HOMEMADE VAC MHO MAREPEA ROM PEA Ina OR LARK SMALL48--LARti ON FOOD PURCHASES OF $6 OR MORE $1 OF F - . DINING ROOM, CARRY•OUT Expires September 30, 1989 BANQUET ROOMS • BEER • WINE COMPLETE CARRY-OUT • COCKTAILS do the as k aOlg in the JEWISH NEWS Call the Jewish News Advertising Department 354-6060 72 FRIDAY, AUGUST 25:1989 "So I played some Chopin waltzes and other pieces, and he took my whole family into first class. I had to play one or two pieces each evening at dinner, but it was much bet- ter to be in first class than down in the hold." As a child, Kottler was forced to practice the piano for many hours. He said he didn't know much about clocks, except that he could stop practicing at 4 p.m. each day. So he used to climb up on a chair and move the hands to - 4 p.m. while his uncles were at school. And he'd get the razor strap for that. "In the old country, they don't treat children the way they do here,"he said. "I used to get a good beating with that strap. Maybe that's why I'm so tough on my pupils. I yell at them and they say `Don't go to Kottler. He yells too much.' " In Chicago, Kottler had 'a teacher who gave him 25 cents after each lesson so Mischa could go to the movies. "Instead of me paying him, he paid me. And that's how I first saw Charlie Chaplin," he said. Kottler then studied at the American Conservatory. A young girl named Nellie Wolf asked him to accompany her when she auditioned to study with Leopold Auer, whom Kottler described as the greatest violin teacher who lived. "I asked him if he knew my uncle, Boris Nakutin," Kot- tler said. "He said Nakutin was his accompanist in St. Petersburg, and then asked me if I would like to accom- pany his class in New York. I went. "The hours of 12-1 p.m. or 12-2 p.m. each day were his and mine alone. He was already in his 70s, but he loved to play," Kottler said. "We would play Beethoven and Mozart sonatas, and he told me I shouldn't be an ac- companist; I should be a con- cert pianist. "One day in 1919, after working with the class for three or four years, I came to him as usual, and he greeted me with 'Mischa, tomorrow you play for Rachmaninoff.' And I got a little scared. I asked him why he hadn't prepared me, and he said there was no time because Rachmaninoff was leaving on tour." The next day, Kottler played a piece by Bach, then some Beethoven and Chopin. Rachmaninoff asked if Kot- tler played "anything of my own?" "Yes, your Second Piano Concerto — all three movements," he answered. 1 •-∎ • At 90, Kottler still wants to score a musical. Rachmaninoff was pre- vented by his own concert schedule from taking Kottler as a student. At Rachman- inoff's urging, Kottler went to study in Paris, then Vienna where he met Malinka, who would become his wife of 55 years. When Kottler returned to Chicago he was contacted by a young pianist from Moscow, who had moved from Chicago to Detroit. It was during the Depression, and Kottler couldn't get a manager, so he decided to join his acquain- tance in Detroit. He played for Ossip Gabrilovitch, then conductor of the Detroit Sym- phony Orchestra. "He was very nice and friendly and after I played about five concertos, he asked me what else I wanted to play. I said, 'Mr. Gabrilovitch, what pianist wouldn't love to play the Tchaikovsky Concerto?' And that's what I played in 1931 at Orchestra Hall. "Then in 1933, I played the Rachmaninoff Piano Concer- to Number Three, probably the most difficult ever writ- ten. Right after that I was named musical director of WWJ Radio and later WWJ Television." He also organized a chamber group which in- cluded Mischa Mishakoff, Joseph Gingold and Georges Miquelle. They toured the United States and were called one of the finest chamber groups in the country by the New York Times and honored by NBC. They soon became the Chamber Music Society of Detroit. When the DSO disbanded, Kottler approached the Scripps family at the Detroit News in an effort to get the musicians working. "Kottler Conducts" came into being. Kottler later joined Wayne State University as director of the piano department and also became the official pianist of the rejuvenated Detroit Symphony Orchestra for nearly 25 years. "I've got some good memories," Kottler said. "You see I've outlived everybody, probably because I'm not a pusher. I don't go out after it," he said. "I'm like Arturo Rubinstein. The only thing that he did, which I never did, is run away at 94 with his 40-year-old nurse. So," he laughed, "I'm looking for a 40-year-old nurse." Even at 90, Kottler still plays, daily, both on the silent and regular piano. He still teaches on a regular basis. When his wife was alive, she once fired 40 of his 65 students. "I teach a full hour, and she felt that was too much." He has taught and influ- enced a number of national- ly and internationally ac- claimed pianists, including Ruth Laredo, David Syme, May Jurasik, Catherine Rollin, Cynthia Raim, Neal Eisenstein, Sheila Stephen-