Here's some information on Ivy Improta, which comes from a 2003 article by Bruce Gilman about the pianist's grandson, musician Gabriel Improta:
Ivy Improta was a child prodigy who Villa-Lobos brought to Rio de Janeiro from the interior São Paulo for studies with Tomás Teran. She worked with Villa-Lobos throughout her career and became recognized as the classical pianist who toured extensively, unveiling Brazilian classical music both solo and with orchestras. Tomás Teran introduced her to Eurico Nogueira França, a pianist, teacher of music history, and music journalist for Correio da Manhã, Jornal do Brasil, and O Estado de S. Paulo. He was a close friend of Villa-Lobos, and together they worked to establish the Academia Brasileira de Música (Brazilian Music Academy). When Ivy was 20 years old, they were married; their best man was Villa-Lobos.Teran was a close friend of Villa's, and the composer dedicated many great works to him. By the way, he was one of Tom Jobim's teachers.
I've never seen any Villa-Lobos recordings by Ivy Improta, which is a shame. She played the piano in the premiere of the Fantasia Concertante for piano, clarinet, and bassoon (a work which was dedicated to the pianist Eugene List.) This seems to be the only picture of her on the web:
she is actually my great grandma
ReplyDeleteHey, same guy, just diff acoustic. She was my great grandmother, but I never met her. She migrated to Brazil from Italy when she was a young girl. Her sister was taking piano classes and she listened in and she turned out to be a child prodigy. She soon became a local celebrity and when villa lobos came to visit a near by town and heard of her, she took her and her family to rio so she could practice. Unfortunately, her parents forced her to play piano all day and she didn’t go to school because they were a poor family and she was a source of income. The moment she could retire she did and never touched the piano again exept on my mother’s birthdays when she would play happy birthday, and my mother remembers it being one of the most beautiful melodies she has ever heard. That’s most of what I know about her. I also know she was a wonderful kind hearted person who will be missed.
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