Martin Canin 1930-2019 | In Memoriam

Martin Canin (BS and MS ’56, piano), who started teaching piano at Juilliard in the 1950s as an assistant to Rosina Lhévinne (faculty 1925–76), died May 9.

When his retirement from Juilliard was formally announced, at the spring 2016 faculty-staff meeting, Canin noted that Juilliard had been a family affair for him. His brother, Stuart Canin (’49, violin); wife, Fiorella Miotto Canin (Diploma ’60, Postgraduate Diploma ’62, piano); and daughter, Serena Canin (Certificate ’87, MM ’88, violin), are also alums. They all survive him as do his son-inlaw and two grandsons.

Martin Canin began his career as a recitalist; in the New York Times, Harold Schonberg wrote of one concert that “Mr. Canin equaled the achievement of any American pianist this reviewer has heard,” and critic and composer Virgil Thomson wrote of Canin “piano playing so beautiful from every point of view is rare.”

After his impressive start as a performer, Canin decided to focus on teaching, a decision he talked about in a Piano Quarterly article that was excerpted in the Journal. “After I played my New York debut, I did what so many young graduates of Juilliard do. I went with a small management, playing occasional concerts, and keeping body and soul together by doing some teaching.” And then his teacher, Rosina Lhévinne, selected him as one of two assistants and also recommended him for a post at Columbia Teachers College. “Teaching suddenly became quite important in my life,” Canin wrote. “There were not that many occasions to perform and I found that I enjoyed teaching. I am also not so sure that I always enjoyed playing for an audience as much as somebody else might.” Canin, who also taught at SUNY Stony Brook and the Bowdoin Festival and School for many years, also said upon his retirement that indeed teaching had been work, “but work that I loved. It’s been a great run.”

One of Canin’s many students, music history faculty member Michael Griffel (MS ’66, piano) wrote about his teacher.

Remembering Martin Canin

By L. Michael Griffel
Back in 1963, my goal was to become a piano student of Rosina Lhévinne. After all, she had been Van Cliburn’s [Diploma ’54, piano] teacher, I had studied Russian at Yale, and I was aiming to compete in the Tchaikovsky Competition. So, Allen Forte, my theory teacher at Yale, asked Robert Pace (BS ’48, piano), his former colleague at Columbia Teachers College, to help me, and Pace knew Martin Canin well enough to get him to take me on as a private student that summer.

When Marty opened his front door, I beheld a young, lean, handsome man with a sense of selfassurance. He questioned me about my background and ambition and then asked me to play for him. I offered the major work from my college graduation recital, the Brahms Third Piano Sonata, Op. 5. Had I known that this would be one of the works Marty would record for Spectrum Records in 1981, I might have chosen something else!

I was not accustomed to seeing a piano teacher looking rather glum when I finished a piece, but there was Marty, anxious to tell me that, despite some nice things in my performance, there was much that needed fixing. And so it went for six weeks that summer with every piece I played, and yet— and this is the important point—he got me into Rosina Lhévinne’s class at Juilliard in September.

I must admit that for my three years at Juilliard, my lessons with Marty were frustrating. He continually reminded me that I was a very good pianist, but not a great one. Other than some works by Paderewski, he was rarely enthusiastic about anything I played. My lessons with Madame Lhévinne were encouraging, but those with Marty were not. He was always very nice to me, except when he critiqued my playing.

One day in my third year, Marty urged me, passionately, to revise my goals by working toward a PhD in music theory or music history. I went home crushed and angry, but something told me that he was, in fact, right. During my subsequent studies at Columbia, Marty often took me out for lunch, encouraged me, and took pride in my academic achievements.

Marty remained a friend through the following decades and took delight when I became a Juilliard faculty member. One day in 2010, he asked me quite seriously, “Are you still mad at me for goading you into a career in scholarship?” and I replied, “No, Marty, you are largely responsible for the unparalleled joy I have had as a scholar and teacher.” A few years later, at a Juilliard holiday party, he walked over to me to say that he counted me among his important successes as a teacher, and I could tell from his expression that he really meant it. Marty Canin may have been a very tough teacher, but he was also a sincere, insightful, realistic, and helpful person!

L. Michael Griffel (MS '66, piano) joined the Juilliard faculty in 1997