The Brothers Hambourg

A lively account of the remarkable Hambourg brothers -- Mark, Jan, Boris and Clement. Their father, Professor Michael Hambourg, escaped Tsarist oppression for England. His oldest son, Mark, studied with Leschetizky and pursued a career as an international piano virtuoso. In 1910 Michael Hambourg took his three younger sons to Toronto, where he established the Hambourg Conservatory of Music. Jan, a violinist, married Isabelle McClung, close friend of novelist Willa Cather, and moved to Europe. He appears as "Uncle Jan" in Yehudi Menuhin's autobiography and was a scholar and editor of Bach's music for violin. Boris, a cellist, co-founded the Hart House String Quartet. A favourite interest of Vincent Massey, it became a major Canadian musical institution and toured widely. Clement, pianist and the self-styled black sheep, was proprietor of the House of Hambourg, one of Toronto's first jazz clubs.