Ruth Slenczynska (born January 15, 1925) is an American pianist.

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Slenczynska was born in Sacramento, California. Her father, Joseph Slenczynski, was a violinist. Pushed by her father and starting at age three, Slenczynska was forced to practice the piano relentlessly. When she was four, she began her piano studies in Europe, later studying with Artur Schnabel, Egon Petri, Alfred Cortot, Josef Hofmann, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. She played her debut in Berlin at age six and made her debut in Paris with a full orchestra at seven years of age.
Career[edit]
Slenczynska was accepted to the University of California, Berkeley, and while there, she met fellow student George Born. The two married after a short engagement in 1944 but divorced ten years later. Thereafter, Slenczynska resumed her concert career. In 1964, she accepted a full-time position at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville as Artist in Residence, a title she retained until 1987. A large assortment of her memorabilia and recordings constitutes a Special Collection in the Lovejoy Library as SIUe.
She married again in 1967, this time to a fellow faculty member and professor of political science at Southern Illinois. In 1957 she published a book of memoirs, Forbidden Childhood, which deals with life as a child prodigy, and a book on piano technique, Music at Your Fingertips: Aspects of Pianoforte Technique. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.