Zubin’s pianist has died
RIPThe story goes that when Zita Carno auditioned for Zubin Mehta he asked if she played the second sonata by Pierre Boulez. ‘Oh, I eat that stuff for breakfast,’ said Zita. He promptly engaged her as keyboardist of the LA Phil, where she played for 21 years.
Zita, who has died aged 80, was born Zita Carnovsky in New York City and addressed everyone as ‘Bubele’. After a concerto debut with the NY Philharmonic she worked with the jazz genius John Coltrane and with the ballet leader Martha Graham.
She made multiple recordings with the LA Phil. In retirement, she wrote baseball biographies.
She would have auditioned in 1979 for Zubin Mehta. Not 1960.
Certainly later than 1960, but it had to be earlier than “in 1979”, because Maestro Zubin Mehta was MD of LA Phil starting in 1962, but only until the summer of 1978 when he became MD of NY Phil.
I rather doubt it, since he left the LAPO in 1978. Perhaps you meant 1969?
Steve, or rather between 1962-78, Zubin’s tenure in LA. By 1979 he was already with the NY Phil.
I knew Zita Carno a little bit when she was at the Manhattan School of Music and attended her Town Hall recital debut sometime in 1959. If I remember correctly, she got a good review in the NY Times. At I party around that time, she talked only baseball expounding on the batting averages of the Pittsburgh Pirate infielders!
She also recorded in a pioneering early LP of percussion ensemble music, with Paul Price and the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble (1961.)
Curious to know what you mean by “worked with John Coltrane.” Was this playing jazz in clubs or something else?
Drummerman, A bit of googling informs me that Zita Carno’s connection to John Coltrane was writing the liner notes for his 1961 release “Coltrane Jazz”. Also she wrote an essay on Coltrane and Art Blakey for the “Jazz Review” in 1959, and accompanied Mary Lou Williams (2 pianos!) on an album put out by Folkways Records.
Thank you for this info.
Her two articles on Coltrane are classics of jazz literature. You can read them here:
https://www.jazzstudiesonline.org/files/jso/resources/pdf/JREV2.9.pdf
And here:
https://www.jazzstudiesonline.org/files/jso/resources/pdf/JREV2.10FULL.pdf
I attended Los Angeles Philharmonic rehearsals in the early 1970s when I was a conducting student. There were several players who were always very kind and willing to chat about that week’s concert, their feelings about the music, etc. — David Frisina, Glenn Dicterow, Michele Zukovsky, Byron Peebles… Zita Carno was one of these, and would invite me onstage during the breaks to look at some of the keyboard parts she was playing. Fun, gregarious, knowledgeable, and quite unabashed when discussing her feelings about a piece or a guest conductor!
She was a musical force of nature. She addressed everyone as “bubele” because her vision was poor and she occasionally couldn’t see to whom she was speaking. I remember when she played for an audition for a violist in Los Angeles — who had forgotten to bring the piano score to the audition. “No problem!” she said – and proceeded on the spot to play her own reduction of Hindemith’s “Der Schwanendreher” from memory. It was, of course, better than the published reduction — because, well, Zita. She will be missed.
In 1962, I played a chamber music concert here in NY with her. The program involved violin, cello, clarinet, and piano – composers: Milhaud, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Hindemith. She was a hoot to work with!!
Zita could play the five Hindemith brass sonatas from memory!!! She was one of a kind and impossible to describe with mere words. Zita had to be experienced. RIP.
This is an update from my Facebook post of a few days ago: Mourning the passing of the one and only Zita Carno, LA Philharmonic pianist who famously clinched her 1979 audition after responding to Zubin Mehta’s request that she play Boulez’s 2nd Sonata with, “Oh, I eat this stuff for breakfast.” I asked for a lesson with her on some contemporary works after hearing her play a Hindemith recital. I didn’t plan to stay in touch, but she began calling periodically afterwards to ask if I was a member of Musicians Union Local 47. I saw no reason to join, until after about her 4th call she basically ordered me to so she could get me in to play as an extra/2nd keyboard with the LA Phil…which led to 20 some odd years of working beside her on piano, celeste, harpsichord, and synth, and brought me into contact with Salonen, Stucky, Boulez, Berio, Lutoslawski, Ligeti, Saariaho, Knussen, Carter…all the great composers who came through during those years. Her invitation to me as a young, inexperienced orchestral player charted my life’s path and I couldn’t be more grateful to her. She was an unforgettable character, sightread orchestral scores like no one I’ve ever known, transcribed Coltrane solos in real time during his club dates (and in 1959 wrote a respected technical treatise about him), and a diehard baseball fan who sometimes kept a device on her piano during concerts (!) to track games. She would sing “Bubula” at the sound of any triplet, and mark any and every descending minor 3rd by singing “Yoo hoo” (plus writing it in large letters in her score if the Yoo hoo was in her part). One must also mention her thorough knowlege of the Hawaii 5-0 TV series, and an apparent stint as a NYC housing authority cop. Thank you Zita,—you Bubula you—you changed my life.
I was saddened to hear that Zita Carno had passed away and I remember meeting her years ago when we were accompanying performers for a competition in Pasadena. She was an amazing pianist and her sight reading ability was incredible and fearless. We had many wonderful conversations about conductors, symphony orchestras and the inevitable challenge of always being ready to play a demanding work on short notice. I will miss her. Rest in peace, dear friend.
As Zita’s cousin, the family story is that, as a young musician, Zita was listening to Coltrane on the radio one day. As she listened, she transcribed what she was hearing note for note as he played. She then sent her transcription to him, which knocked his socks off! That was the beginning of their collaboration.
Zita was a true wunderkind. At 3 years old, she could re-play any piece she heard just once on the piano. She was completely unique in many many ways. She was also 88 when she died, not 80.
wonderful story!
She was 88, not 80. https://www.discogs.com/es/artist/440316-Zita-Carno