Florence Kirsch Du Brul

Who was Florence Kirsch Du Brul?

Florence Kirsch Du Brul was a concert pianist and master piano teacher and member of Chicago society in the mid-20th century.

Born on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois, USA, in 1915, Florence Kirsch as a little girl studied with master pianist Silvio Scionti and composer Howard Wells, and performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 12. The CSO’s conductor, Frederick Stock, recommended her to the great Austrian classical pianist and composer Artur Schnabel, and Kirsch was sent to Berlin, Germany, where Schnabel was living, so she could study with the great master during her teenage years.

After the Nazis came to power, Kirsch was denied permission to leave Germany, and so was forced to escape to Italy leaving all her possessions behind. She returned to the United States in 1937, and made her professional debut in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall that year.

Kirsch became a classical concert pianist, and performed on several classical records, including neo-classic Swiss composer Ernest Bloch’s Voice in the Wilderness, and Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s Les Noces.

Living in New York City in the 1940s while performing and teaching, she met and married Dr. E. Lloyd Du Brul, an anatomist, physical anthropologist, and educator. After Dr. Du Brul served in General George Patton’s Third Army in World War II, he received a faculty appointment at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry.