SHLONSKY, Verdina

Verdina Shlonsky (Hebrew: וורדינה (רוזה) שלונסקי; 22 January 1905 – 20 February 1990) was an Israeli composer, pianist, publicist and painter.

Verdina (Rosa) Shlonsky was born to a Hasidic Jewish family in Kremenchuk in the Russian Empire, the youngest of six children. The family immigrated to Palestine in 1923, but she remained in Vienna to continue her music education. From there, she moved to Berlin, where she studied with pianists Egon Petri and Artur Schnabel. In Paris, she studied composition with Nadia Boulanger, Edgard Varèse and Max Deutsch. In 1925, she and her sister a successful opera singer Judith Shlonsky (Nina Valery), who had returned to Europe, married two brothers: Sigmund and Alexander Sternik. Both couples soon divorced.