The Canadian pianist Ida Krehm was born in Toronto in 1912 of Russian parents. She studied in Canada with Ernest J. Farmer, Norah Drewett de Kresz, Viggo Kihi, and theory with Healey Willan. She made her first concert appearance in 1924 and five years later moved to Chicago where she continued her studies with Rudolf Ganz. In 1936 she married Joseph Richard Pick, a Chicago pianist, composer, and textile broker. A year later she won the Schubert Memorial Award, the National Federation of Music Clubs Prize, and the Naumburg Foundation Award. As a result she appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy and made her New York début at Town Hall. Her Canadian professional début took place in 1939 at Hart House, University of Toronto. She toured widely after that, appearing as soloist with the Cleveland, Chicago, Hallé, Toronto, London Philharmonic, Suisse Romande, Royal Philharmonic, and many other orchestras. After her husband¡¯s death in 1955, she took up residence in Hampstead, England. In the 1970s she lived in Switzerland, and the last two years of her life she lived in Costa Rica, where she died in 1998. She introduced many significant works by Kabalevsky, Tansman, Benda, Dello Joio, Surinach, and others, including Bloch¡¯s Scherzo fantasque in 1950 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. When Samuel Yaffe created Paraclete Music in the early 1940s, he invited Ida Krehm to be among a handful of pianists to record the very first comprehensive anthology of Scriabin¡¯s piano works. As a result she recorded in the living room of a home in East Haven, Connecticut in 1942 Scriabin¡¯s Sonata No.5 in F sharp major, Op. 53, and the very first recording of Scriabin¡¯s Etude in B flat major (¡®Etude in Ninths¡¯), Op. 65, No. 1.
