Ruth Slenczynska is an American pianist born in 1925. She has been playing the instrument since age 3 when her father — a violinist — started her and pushed her to excel. A child prodigy, Ruth Slenczynska was just 6 when she gave her debut performance in Berlin, and 7 for her Paris debut.. Her list of teachers and mentors is a “who’s who” of important musicians, including Artur Schnabel, Egon Petri, Alfred Cortot, Josef Hofmann, and Sergei Rachmaninov. Ms. Slenczynska herself became an important teacher and mentor in her role as full-time Artist-in-Residence at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville from 1964-1987. Today’s Beautiful Music features Ruth Slenczynska, who is now 97 years old, from a 1958 recording playing the Chromatic Fantasia And Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903 by Johann Sebastian Bach.