Cuban Pianist and Pedagogue Salomon Mikowsky Has Passed Away

March 18, 2024

Pianist and professor Salomón Mikowsky has died in Manhattan.

Mikowsky, born in Cuba to Polish Jewish parents, received his first lessons from César Pérez Sentenat, who was a student in Paris of Joaquín Nin, who in turn was a student of Moszkowski, a disciple of Liszt.

He also studied music theory with Argeliers León and solfège with Luis Pastoret. After obtaining a scholarship to Juilliard School, he continued his studies in New York with Sasha Gorodnitzki, a distinguished disciple of the legendary Russian virtuoso Josef Lhevinne; there he obtained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees. Later he completed a Doctorate at Columbia University.

Professor of the Piano Faculty at the Manhattan School of Music for more than 30 years, he received the Presidential Medal for Distinguished Contribution awarded by that institution. He taught masterclasses at the most important conservatories throughout the world. His students have always achieved numerous successes, have been soloists with Symphony Orchestras in various countries, and have won awards in prestigious international competitions.

Salomón Mikowsky organized, partially financed, and directed —in creative collaboration with the Historian of the City of Havana, Eusebio Leal Spengler and the team of the Esteban Salas Musical Heritage Office— the Encounter of Young Pianists, which has had numerous and brilliant editions in the Cuban capital since 2013.

The text that we publish below, unpublished until now, was originally written in English by Spanish pianist Mateo Lorente Romero, director of the Rodolfo Halffter Conservatory of Music in Móstoles, Spain. Magazine AM:PM is grateful to the Esteban Salas Musical Heritage Office and to the author for the honor of making public this beautiful reflection on a great musician, cultural promoter, and teacher of generations.

I wish I could have written these words in Spanish, which is Salomón's native language and mine. Mother means strength, clarity, and commitment. The subtlety of meanings is better communicated in the language in which we have experienced our first impressions of life.

Salomón's creativity, sensitivity, and behaviors are necessarily connected to his native Havana. Havana is rhythm, it is vibrant life, it is where everything begins. This can only be understood if we have had the opportunity to take a walk through Centro Habana or Old Havana, where life oozes enthusiasm and a strong attachment to the broad meaning of passion. The sounds of this city are deeply engraved in his soul. Afternoons at the beach and nighttime excursions for a "croqueta" left a deep mark on what he became as an adult.

Salomón has always had that intense attraction to beauty, in all its manifestations. From human physical beauty to the most elevated, embodied in the arts and especially in music. It began with his admiration for Germán's mother in his childhood, when he spent time listening to conversations about art and learning what life is all about. This attraction to beauty has been his leitmotif and at the same time his drama. Beauty itself is drama; we will never be able to grasp it. We may admire it, enjoy it, but never possess it. After realizing that it is impossible to achieve perfection, he decided to dedicate himself to one of the most inspiring professions that can exist: The art of taking hold of something and passing it on to the next generations. And that is quite a challenge.

The way he understood teaching was not only through the transmission of knowledge, but by drawing out all the potential from his students, working on their weaknesses and making them enjoy their strengths. He tried to explore the best in each student, while still respecting their personality. Sometimes, the vulnerability of the human soul caused some of them to abandon him, when he acted as a mirror where students had to confront themselves. His art of teaching was rather the art of exposing the human soul in its naked self.

Completely absorbed in the intention of taking sound to its maximum, he has tried to make us understand that beauty in sound can transcend all borders and bring us a kind of ecstasy that only music can provide. It is like when we walk through a garden and stop to enjoy the aroma of the flowers instead of walking without stopping.

Wanting to achieve perfection is also sometimes dangerous. There is a point where the mind, tired of searching, abandons reality and settles in a parallel world. The collision between one and the other has made Salomón face life at the limit. The subtle line between madness and sanity has been very thin in him. The mind, tired of reality, surrenders to madness. And it also makes a shield against pain, not physical pain but the invisible pain of the soul.

Music has been his escape valve. We, his students, have had the opportunity to enjoy that combination between madness and sanity. Absorbed by his musical passion, he has tried to transmit it all through his restless energy. I could be writing for hours about many anecdotes over the years, trips, lessons, and conversations. They all end at the same point: the search for truth through music. For those who have not succumbed to institutional religions, music is a balm that brings us closer to the truth. Real truth that is not affected by time or space, nor by human imperfections. We can only hope to carry on his teachings and transmit them so that they remain as a mark on eternity.