José Iturbi

b. 28 November 1895, Valencia, Spain, d. 28 June 1980, LA, California, USA. A kid prodigy, Iturbi examined piano on the Paris Conservatoire de Musique and afterwards taught on the Music Conservatory in Geneva. In 1929 he produced his NY debut and, staying based in the united states, at first focused on traditional music, touring being a concert pianist. He produced his debut being a conductor in Mexico Town in 1933, afterwards working also within this capability including being primary conductor from the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra from 1936-44. In Hollywood in the middle-40s, he made an appearance in MGM’s Hundreds Cheer (1943). Iturbi not merely played traditional music but additionally boogie-woogie, expectedly excelling on the previous but faring terribly at the last mentioned. In 1944 he was in Experience In Music and Two Young ladies PLUS A Sailor, where June Allyson, Jimmy Durante, Virginia O’Brien as well as the rings of Xavier Cugat and Harry Adam also appeared. Within the same season’s Music For Large numbers, with Allyson, Durante and O’Brien, Iturbi had taken an orchestra through an array of well-known classics unhindered by a lot of a story. Just a little better was Anchors Aweigh (1945), with Kelly, Grayson and Frank Sinatra. Also in 1945 emerged what many respect, with significant justification, because the worst-ever Hollywood biopic, A Tune TO KEEP IN MIND. Saddled with an unintentionally amusing script, it supposedly portrayed the life span of traditional composer Frederick Chopin. Iturbi supplied the soundtrack piano playing for Cornel Wilde’s on-screen Chopin and on the pumps of the, his record from the composer’s ‘Polonaise In A-Flat Main’ sold very well. Iturbi was also in VISIT TO Mexico (1946, with Ilona Massey, Jane Powell and Cugat and his music group) and Three Daring Daughters (1948, which also experienced Powell and where Iturbi was asked to act a respected role reverse the film’s celebrity, Jeanette MacDonald). In 1949 Mario Lanza produced his film debut reverse Grayson in MGM’s shiny musical love, That Midnight Kiss (1949). Even though film’s rating was by Bronislaw Kaper, Iturbi not merely made an appearance on-screen but was also music supervisor. He continuing to operate, chiefly within the traditional field, for a few years before retiring. The town of his delivery honours him with road titles and in hosting, since 1976, the biennial José Iturbi Piano Competition.