Ralph Berkowitz (September 5, 1910 – August 2, 2011)^[1] was an American composer, classical musician, and painter.^[2]

Berkowitz was born inBrooklyn,New York to aRomanianJewish couple, Matilda and William Berkowitz who had emigrated fromRoman andBucharest. His father was instrumental in shaping young Ralph's musical culture and experience.^[3] In 1927, he enrolled at theCurtis Institute inPhiladelphia where he later became a member of the teaching staff.^[4] In 1940, he became accompanist forGregor Piatigorsky, with whom he appeared until the cellist's death in 1976. Other musical partners included the tenorJan Peerce, cellistFelix Salmond, and violinist and composerGeorge Enescu. He recorded extensively with Piatigorsky and others, including the violinist Eudice Shapiro.

From 1946 to 1951, Berkowitz served as an executive assistant toSerge Koussevitzky atTanglewood and later became Dean of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in 1951, a position he held until 1961. As Dean, he presided over a faculty that includedAaron Copland,Leonard Bernstein, and many others. Illustrious students in those years includedZubin Mehta,Lorin Maazel andClaudio Abbado. He, along with Boston Symphony manager Todd Perry, was largely instrumental in keeping the Tanglewood Festival alive following Koussevitsky's death.

Berkowitz has been widely published as an arranger and composer. HisA Telephone Call, for singer and orchestra is his most extended work.

In 1961 Berkowitz moved toAlbuquerque, New Mexico, where he lived until his death in 2011. He first came to Albuquerque in 1940 to serve as a guest artist with a chamber music series called The June Music Festival. He remained active as an artist for the Festival into the 1980s. Berkowitz became manager of the then Albuquerque Civic Orchestra (now New Mexico Symphony Orchestra) when he moved to New Mexico and served until 1968, seeing the Orchestra through its move to its current home—Popejoy Hall at theUniversity of New Mexico.

Berkowitz commissionedDaron Hagen to compose one of his most intellectually rigorous works, a set of Piano Variations based on a theme made up of pitches derived from Berkowitz's and Hagen's names, in 2002. The work is available fromCarl Fischer. Berkowitz reached hiscentenary in September 2010^[5] and died in August of the following year.

• "RCA Red Seal Century - Soloists & Conductors", 2 CD / RCA Records / 2001-10-23
• "Stravinsky: Petroushka Suite; Toch: Violin Sonata", 1 CD / Crystal Records / 1998-01-02^[6]

• 1910 births
• 2011 deaths
• American male classical pianists
• American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
• Musicians from Brooklyn
• American men centenarians
• 20th-century American classical pianists
• Curtis Institute of Music alumni
• Curtis Institute of Music faculty
• Jewish American classical musicians
• Classical musicians from New York (state)
• 21st-century American Jews
• Jewish centenarians
• 20th-century American male pianists

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