Viggo Kihl

Kihl, Viggo

(Richard) Viggo Kihl. Pianist, teacher, b Copenhagen 11 Nov 1882, d Toronto 10 Jul 1945. He studied in Copenhagen and 1898-1901 with Robert Teichmüller at the Leipzig Cons. He made his debut in 1901 in Copenhagen and toured Scandinavia. He moved to London in 1907 where he taught and performed at the Royal Albert Hall, Queen's Hall, Crystal Palace and other concert halls. He toured Europe and South Africa in 1912 as a pianist, also supplying reports about musical events to the Musical Times.

At the invitation of A.S. Vogt, Kihl moved to Toronto in 1913 to teach at the TCM and remained there until his death. He toured Canada frequently, performed in many small Ontario communities, and in the US, and gave annual recitals at Toronto's Eaton Auditorium. A series of six recitals 1920-1 in Hamilton, Ont illustrated the wide range of his repertoire, from Bach to Albeniz. With the TSO he performed Beethoven's Concerto No. 4 (1932) and No. 5 (1935) and Chopin's Concerto No. 1 (1936) and the Mozart Concerto for 3 pianos (K242) with Ernest Seitz and Norman Wilks (1931), and later with Seitz and Alberto Guerrero (1934), and also performed in duos and other chamber groups with Luigi von Kunits, Boris Hambourg, Harry Adaskin, Ferdinand Fillion, and others. Kihl was a member of the Five Piano Ensemble with Norah Drewett de Kresz, Alberto Guerrero, Ernest Seitz, and Reginald Stewart in 1926. He contributed articles on pianists, piano technique, and musicianship to musical journals in England and Canada. He also published some piano transcriptions, eg, the Scherzo from Mendelssohn's Octet (Novello 1912). Among his pupils were Cora B. Ahrens, Mona Bates, Agnes Butcher, Arthur Gold, Weldon Kilburn, Gwendolyn Williams Koldofsky, Ida Krehm, Mischa 'Max' Meller, and Florence Steinhauer. Kihl's wife, Ellen Marie Jaehnigen (ca 1873-1962), was a violinist trained at Dresden.