Nina Deutsch
FORT LEE - Nina Deutsch, former concert pianist, piano teacher and voice coach, passed away at her home in Fort Lee, NJ on January 22. Ms. Deutsch, who lived all over the U.S. during her youth, graduated from the Julliard School of Music, where she studied with Sasha Gorodnitzki, in 1964, and made her piano debut at Carnegie Hall in 1968. She was a student of Dorothy Taubman and Rudolf Firkusny, among others. She also received a Master’s Degree in Musical Arts from Yale, where she studied the music of Charles Ives. She was the first woman to record all of Ives’ piano music.
She was born in San Antonio, Texas on March 15, 1943, the second of four children of Irvin Deutsch, M.D. and Freda Deutsch, both now deceased. Her brother Laurence Jay Deutsch, M.D. of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada predeceased her. Ms. Deutsch was divorced and had no children. She leaves her older sister Diane Thome, a retired professor of music at the University of Washington and composer of avant garde music, and her younger sister Mona Deutsch Miller, a retired lawyer and playwright, her brother-in-law Steven J. Miller, and multiple nieces and nephews.
Ms. Deutsch, who had perfect pitch, started playing the piano at age five. She performed with an orchestra at age 10 in Miami together with her sister Diane, played in concert halls all over the United States and Europe, toured China in a series of concerts singing popular music and American folk songs while accompanying herself at the piano in the early 1980s, and created solo shows which she performed, at the piano, at multiple venues in New Jersey and elsewhere on a wide variety of subjects including Clara Schumann and Jewish American composers. She also performed on cruise ships, at parties and at restaurants, and enjoyed a varied career. She taught piano and voice, including working with young rock musicians. She was at various times a journalist, publicist, including for comedian Jackie Mason, and appeared on TV multiple times, including as both an imposter and herself on “To Tell the Truth.” She loved performing.
Graveside Funeral, Friday, February 2, 2024 at 11:00am, Cedar Park Cemetery, 735 Forest Avenue, Paramus, NJ 07652. Please meet at 10:30am at the Cedar Park Information Center to follow the hearse to the gravesite.
Virtual Celebration of Life, Sunday, March 10, 2024 from 2:00pm to 3:30pm. Please email Marc Malamud at marcdmala@gmail.com for a link to the website.