Eva Heinitz Cello Scholarship Fund
Eva Heinitz was born in Berlin in 1907. From early childhood, music was a part of her life as she attended Berlin Philharmonic and State Opera performances. Her father, a lawyer and amateur pianist, loved chamber music and invited violinists and cellists to perform in their elegant apartment.
At age 15, she was admitted to the Berlin State Academy of Music, where she studied with Hugo Becker.
When in 1933, Hitler came to power, Heinitz, half-Jewish, left Berlin for Paris. Soon after, she moved to the United States, and became a naturalized citizen five years later.
In the U.S., she performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony under Fritz Reiner as assistant principal. Being a woman, she was not allowed to advance to principal chair, but Reiner would often invite her to play chamber music with visiting soloists.
Heinitz joined the University of Washington faculty where she taught for 28 years.
Eva Heinitz established the Eva Heinitz Cello Scholarship Fund in 1995 by donating a Goffriller Cello made in 1700, a Peccatte cello bow, and a Nurenberger cello bow, whose proceeds from a sale fund this scholarship.
The Jacobs School of Music is honored to receive this generosity and awards the Eva Heinitz Cello Scholarship to students studying the cello.