KABOS, Ilona

Kabos was born Ilona Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Budapest in 1893,(some sources give her year of birth as 1894, 1898 or 1902). She studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music under Árpád Szendy (a pupil of Franz Liszt), Leo Weiner and Zoltán Kodály), and in 1915 she won the Liszt Prize. In the early part of her career, she played for Ferruccio Busoni, who also played for her. She toured widely, giving a number of premiere performances of works by composers including Kodály, Weiner, Béla Bartók, Luigi Dallapiccola, Roy Harris, Carlos Chávez and Mátyás Seiber. She made her American debut in 1951.[1] She taught at the Royal Budapest Academy of Music from 1930 through 1936.