Ruth Posselt (Ruth Pierce Posselt Burgin) was an American violinist and teacher born (in Medford, Massachusetts) on September 6, 1914. She is best remembered as the wife of Richard Burgin, concertmaster of the Boston Symphony for 42 years, and for premiering several contemporary violin concertos – those by Edward Hill (1939), Walter Piston (1940), Paul Hindemith (1941), and Vernon Duke (1943.) Although these works are probably worth listening to at least once, nobody plays them anymore. She also premiered Aaron Copland’s sonata in 1944. Copland was her accompanist. Having begun violin lessons at age 3, she made her public debut in Boston at the age of six, afterwards studying with Emmanuel Ondricek, pupil of Eugene Ysaye. Her recital debuts at Carnegie Hall in 1923 and Symphony Hall (Boston) were followed by a debut in New York in 1928 under Walter Damrosch (with the New York Philharmonic), playing the Tchaikovsky concerto. She was 14 years old. She studied with Jacques Thibaud in Paris later on and she toured throughout Europe and the U.S. afterward. She first toured the U.S. in 1935, playing with all of the major orchestras. She played in the White House for President and Mrs. Roosevelt in 1937. In 1940, she married Burgin and made Boston her home. She was 25 years old. She again played, at age 29, with the New York Philharmonic on January 1, 1944, playing the Duke concerto. She did not appear with this orchestra ever again. With the Boston Symphony, she appeared more than 60 times. Her last tour of Europe took place in 1949. Thereafter, she only worked in the U.S. In 1958 she formed a duo with pianist Luise Vosgerchian (one of Yo-Yo Ma’s teachers at Harvard.) She moved to Florida when Burgin retired from the Boston Symphony and then taught at Florida State University (Tallahassee, Florida) from 1963 to 1978, where he was also a teacher. She also played in the Florestan Quartet which Burgin formed after coming to Florida. As far as I know, she never recorded commercially although there are a few live performance recordings available. YouTube has a very short snippet of audio of a live performance of the Tchaikovsky concerto on its site which is so short it’s almost not worth mentioning. According to a usually reliable source, she played a Giovanni Pressenda violin constructed in 1844. Rudolf Koelman plays a Pressenda violin too but his is from 1829. Posselt died on February 19, 2007, at age 92.
