Maria Levinskaya

Maria Epstein Levinskaya (born circa 1885 – 6 August, 1960), often known as Madame Levinskaya, was a Russian pianist, a pupil of Vasily Safonov at the Moscow Conservatory. But she also worked with many other teachers - 19 in all, including Leopold Godowsky in Berlin, Isidor Philipp in Paris and Tobias Matthay in London - "some celebrated, others obscure, from whom I tried to glean a ray of light". She made her debut as a pianist in Cologne in 1913, appeared in England as a soloist under Henry Wood, Dan Godfrey and others, and set up her own piano school in London in 1925. In 1919 Levinskaya was charged with stealing a cloak worth £8 18s 6d from the Marshall & Snelgrove department store in Vere Street, but was later acquitted.