Vronsky & Babin
Husband and wife Vitya Vronsky and Victor Babin were regarded by many as one of the foremost duo-piano teams of the twentieth century.
Vitya Vronsky (1909 - 1992), was born in Kiev, where she graduated from the Kiev Conservatory at the age of 13 and began a brilliant concert career as a soloist. She met her future husband Victor Babin (December 13, 1908 - March 1, 1972), born in Moscow, in Berlin in 1933 while both studied with Artur Schnabel. Vitya Vronsky also studied with in Paris with Alfred Cortot and Egon Petri. Soon thereafter they formed the duo piano team of Vronsky & Babin, once described by Newsweek magazine as "the most brilliant two-piano team of our generation", and embarked on a career as duo pianists that took them all over the world.
Vronsky & Babin were introduced to American audiences through their recordings of the piano music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, who became their friend and mentor. Their recordings were issued by RCA Victor, Columbia, Decca and EMI. Despite a break from performance during World War II during which Babin served in the Armed Forces and Vronsky worked with war casualties in Washington, D.C. hospitals, the duo still managed to perform over 1,200 concerts in North America alone. In 1961, Babin became Director of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where both he and Vronsky served on the Institute's faculty. Babin died in 1972, and Vronsky continued to teach and perform until her death in 1992. Vronsky and Babin are Steinway Immortals.