Ruth Esther Hadassah Schonthal (June 27, 1924 – July 10, 2006) was an acclaimed classical composer, pianist, and teacher.
At the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm, she studied composition with Ingemar Liljefors and piano with Olaf Wibergh.
Among the audience members was the noted German composer Paul Hindemith, who obtained a scholarship for her to study with him at Yale University in 1946.
She graduated from the Yale School of Music with honors in 1948[2] and at first earned a living by writing advertising jingles and popular songs.
One close student of hers between 2003 and 2005, the unknown Stephanie Germanotta, went on to great fame in the pop music world as Lady Gaga.
[7] "Her music is expressionist, her forms ingenious," writes Catherine Parsons Smith; like other Hindemith students she strove to break free of his influence.
[10] In 1994 she received the Internationaler Kunstlerinnen Preis of the City of Heidelberg, and was honored with an exhibition of her life and works at the Prinz Carl am Kornmarkt Museum there.
[13] "The Courtship of Camilla" (1979–1980) reached the finalist stage in the New York City Opera Competition in 1980; the set of 24 Preludes titled "In Homage of .