Eugenia Argiewicz

Eugenia Argiewicz was born in Warsaw. Her father sold military uniforms. She started studying music as a small child, and trained with violinist Eugène Ysaÿe in Brussels.[1] Her brother Artur Argiewicz was also a noted violinist,[2][3][4] and they sometimes performed together.[5] Artur and their mother also moved to San Francisco.[6] Another brother, Bernard, was a professional cellist based in Detroit and Philadelphia.[7]

Argiewicz performed in major European cities as a girl.[8] She moved to the United States in the 1910s. She was a soloist with the Seattle Symphony,[9] In 1917 she accompanied British cellist May Mukle when she performed in Sacramento,[10] and in the 1924–1925 season she played violin in the San Francisco Symphony.[2][11][12] "Mme. Bem is intense and emotional," commented one Los Angeles reviewer in 1918, "but plays with a musicianly manner and her style is fresh and invigorating."[13]

Argiewicz and her husband led the Stanislas Bem Little Orchestra,[8] which performed at San Francisco's Whitcomb Hotel;[1] they were among the first musicians to perform on KFRC radio when it began broadcasting in 1924, from the roof of the same hotel.[9] They also played in a chamber trio with pianist Vladimir Shavitch,[14] until she was replaced in 1918.[15] She also played ragtime music.[16]

Eugenia Argiewicz married cellist Stanisław Bem in 1915, in San Francisco. They had a daughter, Vanda (1920-2008), who became a concert pianist and music educator.[17] Eugenia Argiewicz Bem was widowed in 1956,[18] and died in 1969, in San Francisco, aged 82 years.[1] Her granddaughter Gail Colman married San Francisco-based Spanish graphic artist Victor Moscoso.[19] Eugenia Bem's great-grandson Justin "Justo" Moscoso ran for a seat in Congress in 2000, as the Green Party candidate.[20]