The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University

It was an honor to have studied with the late Lillian Freundlich and Sam Sanders during my Bachelor of Music degree at Peabody. I felt very blessed to have two of the most inspiring, brilliant and nurturing pedagogues offer me the opportunity to study both solo piano and chamber music repertoire.
-Caren D. Levine, BM ’92, is currently an assistant conductor at The Metropolitan Opera and principal pianist at Wolf Trap Opera.

I attended Peabody from 1971-74. I received a certificate in piano while studying with Lillian Freundlich. I remember her as a warm, caring human being and an enthusiastic musician who helped her students grow and express their individuality. In 1974 she encouraged me to enter the Kosciuszko Chopin contest in NYC. I got the bronze prize.
-Glenn Rasmussen, TC ’74

Lillian Freundlich was my first teacher at Peabody, for my freshman, sophomore, and junior years. I had come from San Francisco, never having traveled farther east than Reno, Nev., and met this kindly woman whose tone was so meltingly beautiful that for years I could not play the Schubert B-flat Sonata without hearing her play it in my mind. And she could also really let loose when playing the Beethoven Les Adieux Sonata — not bad for a woman who was 78 years old my first year of college. Her kindness and generosity to me was so great that I could never pay her back for all the wonderful support she gave me, including financing my first trip to Europe in 1997. I have missed her since the day she died in June of 1999 and visited her frequently in her beautiful home on the Upper West Side of New York City. Incidentally, I was bringing her pizza (!) the last 10 times I saw her in 1997 and 1998 because she enjoyed it so much, and always claimed it was too fancy a thing for her to get on her own. Quite the lady, this Lillian Freundlich, and a consummate artist and teacher.
-Lloyd Arriola, BM ’94

I got myself placed in Lillian Freundlich’s studio after arriving from the Missouri Ozarks, where I had studied with a scary, flamboyant Cuban. Mrs. Freundlich gave me boundaries around which to make my own choices and interpretations, a new luxury. She dealt lovingly and patiently with my performance anxiety, laughed when I expected frustration, and was a constant advocate of my interests.

Her studio of 1987-89 often accompanied her to Louie’s for dessert and coffee after our weekly rep class, and some of us would walk her to her hotel. I remember her best under the lamplight of the hotel, in her neat dress coat and her gray bun, face shining, telling us funny pianist stories and laughing. She was in her 70s and had survived her husband and, more tragically, her son. Yet she beamed, this strong, beautiful survivor of immense heartbreak and repository of still potent musical power. Glowed.
-Helen Weems, MM ’91, Music History

Lillian was a wonderful woman who was compassionate and thoroughly devoted to the art of music. Her impeccable taste made an enormous impact on me when I worked with her, and her encouragement for me to explore all sorts of musical interests has carried over in my own teaching today.
-Rob Haskins, BM ’82, MM ’84, MM ’92

I realized I sent a link to my blog site tribute to Lillian Freundlich, but a few more thoughts are still worth sharing. She was my savior, after I had endured teacher after teacher in NYC who had no passion, no plan of how to teach, no vision. I was just 13 when I came to Lillian's place on W. 105th, off Riverside Drive and had started at the NYC HS of Performing Arts. Murray Perahia, was a classmate, but a year ahead. Lillian and Irwin had already realized the scope of Perahia's talent and commented on it. They hosted recitals at their home, and I happen to grab an invitation through one of Irwin's students, Christina Petrowsky who came over from Canada to take lessons with him. She was also a classmate at Performing Arts High.

My blog really tells it all in graphic detail, how lessons were an inspiration, and how the setting at 105th was so appropriate to what transpired. I loved Lillian's Mason Hamlin, more than the Steinway sitting to the left of it. And I got to play Beethoven's 2nd Piano Concerto, alongside an African American student whose name eludes me. She played the second piano part. The highlight of my studies with Lillian, was my appearance playing Mozart's K. 453 with the PA Orchestra. Lillian and Irwin came, and she hugged me to death following my performance. I miss her so much and wish she were here to share herself with her beloved students.
- Shirley Smith Kirsten, Oberlin Conservatory (where Lillian sent me. I had no other choice in the matter.) Visit my blog site at arioso7.wordpress.com

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