Obituary

Katrina Krimsky Siegmann
1938- 2025

Katrina Krimsky, born March 5, 1938 on St. Simons Island, Georgia, passed away on March 16, 2025 in San Francisco.  A long-time Texas Street resident, Krimsky was a pianist who engaged in the City’s classical, jazz, and experimental music scenes for decades. 

Krimsky initially moved to Potrero Hill in 1974. Her first house, on Rhode Island Street, was a fixer-upper Queen Anne Cottage. In 1984, Krimsky sold that property and moved to Texas Street. With the Hill as her home base, Krimsky relocated to Switzerland in the early-1980s, often returning to San Francisco to visit. Her husband, Swiss physicist and violinist Hans Siegmann, was on the faculty of ETH Zurich. The two spent the next 20 years abroad. 

Krimsky, who held dual American and Swiss citizenship, was a composer and pianist of Russian descent. She grew up in Virginia and West Virginia. A child prodigy, with a mother who was a classically trained pianist, Krimsky received her Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Soon after, she joined the faculty of American University in Washington, D.C. A few years later she moved to Cologne, Germany and associated with prominent European composers, such as electroacoustic pioneer Luc Ferrari. In 1967, Krimsky became a performer with the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts Ensemble in Buffalo, New York.