Xenia Boodberg Lee Explained

Xenia Boodberg Lee
Birth Name:Xenia Boodberg
Birth Date:28 November 1927
Birth Place:Oakland, California
Nationality:American
Other Names:Xenia Lee
Occupation:pianist

Xenia Boodberg Lee (November 28, 1927 – September 27, 2004) was an American concert pianist, based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Early life

Xenia Boodberg was born in Oakland, California,[1] the only child[2] of Peter A. Boodberg (1903-1972) and Elena (Helen) Boodberg (1896-1980). Her father was a Russian-born Baltic German linguistics scholar and professor of Oriental Languages at the University of California in Berkeley.[3] Her aunt Valentina A. Vernon recalled that her parents tried to raise her without speaking English as a small child, "only French and Russian".[4]

Xenia Boodberg was a creative child, publishing poems and stories in the Berkeley newspaper at age 8,[5] and winning an essay contest on fire prevention from the Berkeley Lodge of Elks, also in 1936.[6] She was performing at public events as a pianist before and into her early teens.[7] [8] [9] She earned an associate in arts degree at the University of California in 1948.[10] She also studied with pianist Egon Petri at Mills College,[11] [12] and with pianist Adolph Baller.[13]

Career

Soon after college, in January 1949, she gave a program of piano music by composers Darius Milhaud, Roger Sessions, Joaquín Nin-Culmell, Béla Bartók, and Claude Debussy in New York, of which The New York Times reviewer commented, "Miss Boodberg remains a pianist of unusual potentialities, especially in the field of new music".[14] She played recitals and concerts, especially twentieth-century works,[15] in the San Francisco Bay area and elsewhere, often and for many years afterwards,[16] [17] [18] [19] [20] into the 1970s.[21] She was a member of the San Francisco Musical Club and played with the Oakland Symphony and the Stockton Symphony.[22]

Personal life

Before February 1950, Xenia Boodberg married Richard Henry Lee, a marine sergeant and Korean War veteran,[23] and a descendant of American founding father Richard Henry Lee.[24] They had two children, Richard and Julie. She died in 2004, aged 76 years.[25]

Notes and References

  1. https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-feb-22-1936-1107884/ "Xenia Boodberg"
  2. Bancroft Library, Teacher and founding curator of the East Asiatic Library: from Urbana to Berkeley by way of Peking : oral history transcript (University of California Libraries 1977): 152-153. via Internet Archive
  3. Yuen Ren Chao, Yakov Malkiel, and Helen McCullough. "In Memoriam: Peter Alexis Boodberg, Oriental Languages: Berkeley" (July 1975).
  4. Bancroft Library, Russian emigré recollections: life in Russia and California : oral history transcript / 1979-1983 (University of California Libraries 1986): Vernon 27. via Internet Archive
  5. Xenia Boodberg, "The Night in the Doll House" Berkeley Daily Gazette (March 19, 1936): 7. via NewspaperArchive.com
  6. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29924669/xenia_boodberg_1936/ "Berkeley Child Awarded Fire Prevention Prize"
  7. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29928033/xenia_boodberg_1940/ "Piano Recital"
  8. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29927959/xenia_boodberg_1941/ "Berkeley Child Pianist to Play at Mills"
  9. https://newspaperarchive.com/entertainment-clipping-mar-11-1942-1107887/ "Young Pianist Plans Recital"
  10. https://books.google.com/books?id=-P84AQAAMAAJ&dq=Xenia+Boodberg+Lee&pg=RA7-PA30 Register - University of California, Volume 2
  11. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29925547/xenia_boodberg_1948/ "Art Museum Recital"
  12. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29926128/xenia_boodberg_1948/ "Student Recital on Mills Campus"
  13. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29927919/xenia_boodberg_lee_1969/ "Piano Recital"
  14. "Program on Piano by Xenia Boodberg" New York Times (January 15, 1949): 11. via ProQuest
  15. Clifford Gessler, "New Piano Works" Oakland Tribune (September 20, 1953): 59. via Newspapers.com
  16. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29926772/xenia_boodberg_lee_1950/ "Concert for Music Club"
  17. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29925912/xenia_boodberg_lee_1953/ "Concert Calendar for the Week"
  18. Alexander Fried, "Xenia B. Lee in Recital" The San Francisco Examiner (February 10, 1957): 43. via Newspapers.com
  19. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29926655/xenia_boodberg_lee_1962/ "Musical to Aid Activity Center"
  20. Alexander Fried, "Pianist Excels in Unusual Program" The San Francisco Examiner (May 7, 1969): 192. via Newspapers.com
  21. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29926956/xenia_boodberg_lee_1972/ "Scriabin Program"
  22. Dolores Waldorf, "College Club, AAUW Set Christmas Tea" Oakland Tribune (November 25, 1959): 6. via Newspapers.com
  23. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29928901/xenia_boodberg_lee_1954/ "Xenia Lee to Solo in Grieg Concerto with Oaklanders"
  24. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29928101/xenia_boodberg_lee_1950/ "Young Pianist Scores Before Music Club"
  25. https://newspaperarchive.com/xenia-lee-obituary-214182017/ Xenia B. Lee

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