About Grete Sultan
Grete Sultan (born Johanna Margarete Sultan) (June 21, 1906 – June 26, 2005) was a German-American pianist. == Biography == Sultan was born in Berlin into a musical family of Jewish heritage. From an early age she studied piano with American pianist Richard Buhlig, and later with Leonid Kreutzer and Edwin Fischer. In 1933, after the Nazis came to power in Germany, her ethnicity led to her being banned from playing in public. She was allowed to only appear in concerts of the Jüdischer Kulturbund. With Buhlig's help, Sultan fled Germany in 1941 via Lisbon, from where she emigrated to the United States by ship. She settled in New York City and took up piano teaching, first at Vassar College and the 92nd Street Y, then at the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York. In the mid-1940s, she met the composer John Cage and became good friends with him. Sultan introduced Cage to one of her students, Christian Wolff; he gave Cage his first copy of the I Ching, which subsequently influenced his musical thinking. Cage dedicated two pieces to Sultan.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.