 The CSO’s conductor, Frederick Stock, recommended her to the great Austrian classical pianist and composer Artur Schnabel, and Kirsch was sent to Berlin, Germany, where Schnabel was living, so she could study with the great master during her teenage years.After the Nazis came to power, Kirsch was denied permission to leave Germany, and so was forced to escape to Italy leaving all her possessions behind.She returned to the United States in 1937, and made her professional debut in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall that year.