Ms. Ilana Mysior

1938 - 2010

When Ilana Mysior came to San Diego in the 1960s to play for a piano master class, several singers took the opportunity to ask her to be their accompanist for auditions that were being held for the newly formed San Diego Opera.

According to local lore, Ms. Mysior was standing with one of the auditioners during a break when an assistant for the opera's founding director, Walter Herbert, approached them and said, "The maestro wants to see you." The confident singer heading toward Herbert was stopped by the assistant, who told them it was Ms. Mysior whose presence was requested.

A gifted musician who was as adept at coaching as she was at playing, Ms. Mysior became the company's first vocal coach and accompanist and later joined the faculty at the University of San Diego, where she was a professor of music for 25 years.

Ms. Mysior died from complications of Marfan syndrome March 17 at a San Diego hospital. She was 71.

In addition to her duties with the San Diego Opera, she was also pianist with the San Diego Symphony in the mid-1960s and was later a member of several chamber music groups, including the Alcala Trio and the ERA Trio.

"She was such a talented and musical player, she was really larger than life," said friend Ronald Goldman, who was part of the Gennaro Trio with Ms. Mysior and Mary Lindbloom.

Although the group was formed in 1982, Goldman had known Ms. Mysior since their days at Hollywood High, where she already had developed a reputation as a stellar musician.

"Everyone thought she was a wonderful pianist," he said.

Ms. Mysior enjoyed vocal coaching and accompanying singers in opera and song literature, said former vocal student Kellie Evans-O'Connor, who is director of San Diego State University Opera Theater.

"She was a phenomenal teacher and a phenomenal musician," Evans-O'Connor said. "She took a lot of performers under her wing … she was very generous and did everything she could for you if she believed in you. In everything she did, she was the top, but she didn't seek accolades, she was pretty understated about it."

Goldman said Ms. Mysior was always willing to teach and collaborate with other musicians.

"Sometimes pianists (only) hear themselves and don't really listen to anyone else," Goldman said. "She was a great accompanist because she was very aware, she knew what everyone else was doing and she was able to be captain of the ship."

During her tenure at USD, Ms. Mysior created the opera workshop and several instrumental ensembles. In addition to her work at USD, she did private teaching and coaching. Acclaimed pianist Gustavo Romero is among her former students.

"Ilana was very inspiring for me," Romero said. "She encouraged me with her wonderful, positive nature."

Ms. Mysior was Romero's first piano teacher and pushed him to join a group of adult chamber musicians she knew when he was still a youth. She also encouraged him to leave San Diego for New York, where he studied at The Juilliard School. He now tours worldwide, performing the works of many composers, including Bach, Beethoven and Chopin.

Ilana Mysior was born July 25, 1938, in Tel Aviv to Nathan and Gitta Mysior, both musicians. Her family moved to New York about a year later and eventually moved to California.

Ms. Mysior won several musical competitions in Los Angeles and played Liszt's "Hungarian Fantasy" with her school orchestra at their graduation at the Hollywood Bowl.

She earned a bachelor's degree in music in 1959 from the University of California Los Angeles and a master's degree in music from the University of Southern California in 1960.

After graduation, Ms. Mysior returned to Tel Aviv, where she founded and directed the accompanying department at the Tel Aviv Conservatory for three years.

She also gave recitals throughout Israel and Europe, but she missed California so much that she returned to the Los Angeles area.

In 1966, she was hired at USD, where she met math professor Bill de Malignon. The two were married nearly 40 years.

Her musical career included doing broadcasts, recordings and tours with the Gennaro Trio throughout the West, Canada and Mexico. She was also a coordinator of the San Diego Public Library's concert series for many years.

She was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome, a degenerative connective tissue disorder, in 1991 and went on to play benefit concerts and lecture about Marfan for several years.

Ms. Mysior is survived by her husband, Bill de Malignon of San Diego; and a brother, Bernie Mysior of Boulder, Colo.

A celebration of life will be held at 7 p.m. May 22 at The First Unitarian Universalist Church, 4190 Front St., San Diego.