Decca Records Signs 97 Year Old Pianist Ruth Slenczynska

Universal Music’s Decca Records has signed 97-year old pianist Ruth Slencyznska to record a new album.

Ruth was born in California to Polish immigrants. She began performing as a child in the 1920s when she was 4. At age 6 she performed in Berlin. She trained with Sergei Rachmaninov and is his last surviving pupil.

In a statement Ruth said, “Whoever heard of a pianist my age making another album?
“Music is meant to bring joy. If mine still brings joy to people, then it is doing what it is supposed to do”.

Ruth has performed for four Presidents including Harry S Truman and for John F. Kennedy at his inauguration. She has also performed for the Reagans and the Obamas.

Ruth still performs. She recently performed at the 2021 Chopin International Festival and Friends in October 2021 in the Polish Embassy in in New York and is set to celebrate her 97th Birthday with a recital at Lebanon Valley College, PA, on 6 February.

Laura Monks and Tom Lewis, Co-Presidents of Decca Label Group, say,
“It’s remarkable to think that Ruth made her concert debut before the birth of colour movies, and around the same time as the birth of television! The fact that she is still at the top of her game over nine decades later is extraordinary. It’s very hard to think of anyone, in any profession, who has achieved such a sustained period of excellence.”

Label Director of Decca Classics, Dominic Fyfe, says, “We are privileged to have Ruth record for Decca again, some sixty-six years since she first recorded for the label in New York. One of her earliest producers was Thomas Frost and we were delighted to unite her with Thomas’ son David, the multi GRAMMY award-winning producer, for this new album. Decca has a long-cherished history of bringing great pianists back to the studio, from Shura Cherkassky to Jorge Bolet. Ruth was friends with them both and her pianism is one of the last living links to that golden era”.

The album My Life In Music will be released in 18 March 2022.

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