To celebrate this anniversary, the Pau Casals Foundation, together with the Vendrell City Council, the Pau Casals Musical Association, and the Pau Casals Municipal School of Music, has organized several commemorative events.
In 2025 we commemorate the centenary of the birth of Eugene Istomin (New York, 1925 – Washington, D.C., 2003), one of the most outstanding pianists of the 20th century.
A student of Alexander Siloti and trained at the Curtis Institute of Music, he made his debut at the age of seventeen with the Philadelphia Orchestra after winning the prestigious Leventritt Award, beginning an international career that placed him among the most respected performers of his generation. He was a frequent guest of the leading orchestras of North America and Europe and collaborated with conductors such as Bruno Walter, Eugene Ormandy, and Leonard Bernstein.
His name is especially associated with the legendary Istomin–Stern–Rose Trio, formed with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose, with which he revolutionized the dissemination of chamber music in the United States. His recordings of Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert remain benchmarks of balance, musicality, and stylistic integrity.
Istomin’s relationship with Pau Casals was deep and decisive. Invited to the 1950 Prades Festival, the young pianist found not only a teacher but also a father figure. Casals, who had never had children, loved him like a son, and between the two of them there was an uncommon frankness and sense of complicity. Casals helped shape Istomin’s musical ambition: to become a “virtuoso musician” capable of uniting the technical perfection of Heifetz and Toscanini with the humanistic sensitivity of Casals.
Pau Casals speaking with Eugene Istomin in the sacristy of Sant Pere de Prada after one of the Festival’s concerts. François Serre, 1965. Pau Casals Foundation. Pau Casals and Defilló Collection.
His relationship with Casals went beyond music. Politically and philosophically, they shared a deep commitment to freedom and justice, convinced that before being musicians, they were human beings. Istomin was always fully available to Casals, devoting himself body and soul to the organization of the Prades Festivals between 1953 and 1955, raising funds and even giving up part of his own fees. He played an essential role in many of Casals’s initiatives in the United States, both with the government (notably with President Truman in 1950) and with the press (ensuring the publication of Casals’s article “I Have Not Changed My Mind” in the Saturday Review in 1953), as well as acting as intermediary in negotiations with Columbia Records.
In 1975 he married Marta Casals, Pau Casals’s widow, with whom he lived until his death in 2003. By his own wish, he asked to be buried in the cemetery of El Vendrell, where he rests in a grave close to that of his beloved master Casals.
In addition to his musical career, Istomin stood out for his commitment to cultural outreach, bringing recitals and lectures to small towns and communities across America, opening high-quality music to audiences who rarely had access to it. Between 1988 and 19994, he offered more than 250 concerts, traveling with his Steinway piano throughout the United States. His efforts were recognized with the National Medal of Arts, awarded by President Bill Clinton in 2001.
In 2022, Mrs. Marta Casals Istomin donated Eugene Istomin’s documentary collection to the Pau Casals Foundation. This collection, currently deposited in the National Archive of Catalonia, includes personal documents, correspondence, concert programs, posters, scores, recordings, and various materials that bear witness to his career and professional trajectory, as well as his relationship with Pau Casals. Last September, cataloguing and description work began on the collection with the aim of making it available to researchers and specialized audiences in the near future.
More information: www.eugeneistomin.com
Commemoration Programme
Wednesday, 26 November
- At 12:00 pm, a floral offering will take place at Eugene Istomin’s grave in the Vendrell cemetery.
- From 5:30 pm, coinciding with the celebration of Saint Cecilia, the Pau Casals Municipal School of Music will offer three concerts featuring its students, dedicated to the figure of Istomin. Last school year, the school named one of its large classrooms after him in recognition of his career and his relationship with Pau Casals, as part of the “Univers Casals” project.
- At 8:00 pm, the Pau Casals Musical Association will host a lecture and audiovisual presentation on Istomin’s biography, highlighting his musical importance and his relationship with Casals. Two previously unreleased films from the Association’s archives will be screened, documenting the visit made by Eugene Istomin and his wife Marta Casals in 1976. The lecture will take place in the Enric Casals Hall at the EMMPAC.
Sunday, 30 November
The events will conclude on Sunday, 30 November, with a tribute concert at the Music Room of the Pau Casals Museum, performed by the renowned pianist Josep M. Colom. MORE INFORMATION AND TICKETS HERE.