Edward Kilenyi

Who was Edward Kilenyi?

Edward Kilenyi, Jr. was a classical pianist. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 7, 1910. His father, Edward Kilenyi, Sr., arrived in the United States from Hungary in 1908, taught music to George Gershwin for five years and later wrote music for movies and the Sam Fox music library.

Kilenyi studied in Hungary with the composer/pianist Ernő Dohnányi at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, earning a diploma in 1930. He later became a Professor of Music at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida in 1953, four years after Dohnanyi began teaching there. He died on January 6, 2000. A collection of recordings of his concerts is located at the International Piano Archives at the University of Maryland.