U.S. man gives $171K to UK piano

10/22/2003

LONDON -- A Holocaust survivor has left a prestigious British piano competition its biggest bequest -- even though he lived in the United States and never attended the event, officials said Tuesday.

The Leeds International Pianoforte Competition has received a check for $171,000 from the estate of Henry Rudolf Meisels, of Wheaton, Ill.

Rudolf Meisels, who died in 2001 at age 81, made the bequest on behalf of his first wife, Joy, a keen pianist who died in 1980. She had lived in Cornwall in southwestern England for some years.

"I think it's a great tribute to the fame and prestige of our competition that somebody who does not have any connection with us has decided to leave us such a large amount," said Fanny Waterman, the competition's chairman and artistic director.

Waterman said no decision has been made yet about how the bequest will be spent.

In a letter to Waterman, Rudolf Meisels' second wife, Sarah, wrote that her husband was "an ardent music lover, but not a musician. He had no ties to the Leeds Competition.

"It is possible, I suppose, that he saw the competition on television, but I do not know. From something that Henry said one day, I believe he had promised Joy he would leave money to the competition in her memory."

After surviving the camps in World War II, Rudolf Meisels returned home to Vienna to attend college. He later emigrated to the United States, where he became the director of a large library system in central Illinois.

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