Ilia Trilling, (1895, Elberfeld

Elberfeld

Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929.-History:The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "elverfelde" was in a document of 1161...

 (now Wuppertal) – 1947) was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

-born Yiddish theatrical producer

Theatrical producer

A theatrical producer is the person ultimately responsible for overseeing all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The independent producer will usually be the originator and finder of the script and starts the whole process...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 for Yiddish theatrical works. He was active in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Throughout the 1920s, until he emigrated to USA. He was able to obtain passage to America by being granted a passport by Russian authorities solely for Ilya Trilling and then getting a friend to change the word Ilya to "familya", meaning family in the native language. This forgery paid off and the entire family emigrated to America through Ellis Island

Ellis Island

Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...

, never to return to Europe. He continued his work in the Yiddish theater in America. His children and their offspring are still in the United States. They live in California, Pepper Pike, Ohio, Sharon, Massachusetts, Missouri, Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, and many other locations.

Works

• Zog, Zog, Zog Es Mir (Tell Me, Say It to Me)
• Du Shaynst Vi Di Zun (You Shine Like the Sun)

External links

• Ilia Trilling at the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music