On a visit with family, her friend set her up with a guy she thought was her type. One trip back to Winnipeg in late 1950 changed everything. Laurane Schultz, who died of pancreatic cancer in January, enjoys a cruise in 2011 with her husband Albert for his 90th birthday. president) Ronald Reagan picking up girls from the rooming house for dates. She later told her children she’d see then-movie star (and future U.S. She lived in a ladies’ rooming house filled with young, aspiring starlets. So, the 24-year-old moved down for a year and perfected her musical talent. In 1950, Schultz’s teachers recommended her for a scholarship to study under highly-regarded Soulima Stravinsky in Santa Barbara, Calif. "It was piano, piano, all the time piano," Lois said. Later in life, Schultz told her children how award-winning actor Walter Matthau, then a classmate of Wilder’s, would ask Schultz to convince Wilder to fall in love with him.īut boys were not to distract Schultz in New York. Her best friend from Winnipeg, Seemah Wilder, also moved to New York City, to study acting. Schultz lived and studied among other young women pursuing professional music careers. Around a year later she received a scholarship to Juilliard, a prestigious arts school in New York City. John’s High School productions and, after graduating, moved to Montreal to study piano. She didn’t like pictures of herself playing piano, just sitting at it. ![]() She took those lessons on top of theory courses, harmony classes and regular school. Her 60-minute piano lessons would stretch to three hours. "Throughout her life, she’d have nightmares about this woman."īy 12, Schultz had switched to a new instructor, one she actually liked, named John Melnyk. "It’s surprising that she stayed with the piano after this because it was a terrible experience," Lois said. The woman commented on the "odours" that would accompany the child student. However, the new teacher bullied her because of her background (her family were Jewish immigrants from Russia and Poland). Then seven or eight years old, she took the trolley from her home in the North End to her teacher’s residence in River Heights. "The plan was for her to be a world famous concert pianist," Lois said. A more established piano teacher in Winnipeg heard her and wanted to take her on as a student so Schultz made the switch. 25 in Winnipeg.Īs a child, Schultz landed a spot on a weekly CBC radio show. ![]() Schultz, 93, died of pancreatic cancer Jan. ![]() The original birth certificate is missing, Lois said. Schultz celebrated on May 14, but thought she was actually born March 14, her children say: the piano teacher might have lied so she could enter the student into competitions she was otherwise too young to qualify. Laurane Schultz was born but her first piano teacher may have changed that, too. "Her teacher had it in mind right away that she was going to be a major star," said Lois Schultz, Laurane’s second child. Her teacher found the name "Lily" too drab - a star needed a stand-out name, so it was changed to Laurane (pronounced Lorraine). She learned by ear, and showed talent quickly. ![]() Lily Greenberg started taking lessons with a neighbourhood North End piano teacher when she was five. At the time, her name wasn’t even Laurane Schultz. When Laurane Schultz began learning piano as a child, she didn’t know she’d later study at Juilliard among some of the world’s best musicians or have a radio show or raise a new generation of talented instrumentalists. Laurane Schultz, 93, studied in New York but love brought her back to Winnipeg
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