Xenia Boodberg Lee (November 28, 1927 – September 27, 2004) was an American concert pianist, based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Early life Xenia Boodberg was born in Oakland, California,"Xenia Boodberg" Berkeley Daily Gazette (February 22, 1936): 7. via NewspaperArchive.com the only childBancroft Library, Teacher and founding curator of the East Asiatic Library: from Urbana to Berkeley by way of Peking : oral history transcript (University of California Libraries 1977): 152-153. via Internet Archive of Peter A. Boodberg (1903-1972) and Elena (Helen) Boodberg (1896-1980). Her father was a Russian-born Baltic German linguistics scholar and professor of Oriental Languages at the University of California, Berkeley.Yuen Ren Chao, Yakov Malkiel, and Helen McCullough. "In Memoriam: Peter Alexis Boodberg, Oriental Languages: Berkeley" (July 1975). Her aunt Valentina A. Vernon recalled that her parents tried to raise her without speaking English as a small child, "only French and Russian".Bancroft Library, Russian emigré recollections: life in Russia and California : oral history transcript / 1979-1983 (University of California Libraries 1986): Vernon 27. via Internet Archive
Xenia Boodberg was a creative child, publishing poems and stories in the Berkeley newspaper at age 8,Xenia Boodberg, "The Night in the Doll House" Berkeley Daily Gazette (March 19, 1936): 7. via NewspaperArchive.com and winning an essay contest on fire prevention from the Berkeley Lodge of Elks, also in 1936."Berkeley Child Awarded Fire Prevention Prize" Oakland Tribune (October 28, 1936): 8. via Newspapers.com She was performing at public events as a pianist before and into her early teens."Piano Recital" The San Francisco Examiner (March 27, 1940): 19. via Newspapers.com"Berkeley Child Pianist to Play at Mills" Oakland Tribune (March 9, 1941): 27. via Newspapers.com"Young Pianist Plans Recital" Berkeley Daily Gazette (March 11, 1942): 7. via NewspaperArchive.com She earned an associate in arts degree at the University of California, Berkeley in 1948.Register - University of California, Volume 2 (University of California Press 1948): 30. She also studied with pianist Egon Petri at Mills College,"Art Museum Recital" The San Francisco Examiner (December 13, 1948): 15. via Newspapers.com"Student Recital on Mills Campus" The San Francisco Examiner (August 7, 1948): 12. via Newspapers.com and with pianist Adolph Baller."Piano Recital" The San Francisco Examiner (May 2, 1969): 33. via Newspapers.com
Career Soon after college, in January 1949, she gave a program of piano music by composers Darius Milhaud, Roger Sessions, Joaquín Nin-Culmell, Béla Bartók, and Claude Debussy in New York, of which The New York Times reviewer commented, "Miss Boodberg remains a pianist of unusual potentialities, especially in the field of new music"."Program on Piano by Xenia Boodberg" New York Times (January 15, 1949): 11. She played recitals and concerts, especially twentieth-century works,Clifford Gessler, "New Piano Works" Oakland Tribune (September 20, 1953): 59. via Newspapers.com in the San Francisco Bay area and elsewhere, often and for many years afterwards,"Concert for Music Club" Newport Daily News (February 17, 1950): 2. via Newspapers.com"Concert Calendar for the Week" Oakland Tribune (September 13, 1953): 59. via Newspapers.comAlexander Fried, "Xenia B. Lee in Recital" The San Francisco Examiner (February 10, 1957): 43. via Newspapers.com"Musical to Aid Activity Center" Oakland Tribune (August 25, 1962): 47. via Newspapers.comAlexander Fried, "Pianist Excels in Unusual Program" The San Francisco Examiner (May 7, 1969): 192. via Newspapers.com into the 1970s."Scriabin Program" The San Francisco Examiner (February 20, 1972): 162. via Newspapers.com She was a member of the San Francisco Musical Club and played with the Oakland Symphony and the Stockton Symphony.Dolores Waldorf, "College Club, AAUW Set Christmas Tea" Oakland Tribune (November 25, 1959): 6. via Newspapers.com
Personal life Before February 1950, Xenia Boodberg married Richard Henry Lee, a marine sergeant and Korean War veteran,"Xenia Lee to Solo in Grieg Concerto with Oaklanders" Oakland Tribune (January 24, 1954): 57. via Newspapers.com and a descendant of American founding father Richard Henry Lee."Young Pianist Scores Before Music Club" Newport Daily News (February 22, 1950): 3. via Newspapers.com They had two children. She died in 2004, aged 76 years.Xenia B. Lee , US Social Security Death Index, via NewspaperArchive.com
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