Blumilla (Milla) Portman, 72, of Overland Park, Kansas, died Friday, Oct. 23, 2015. Graveside services were held Monday, Oct. 26, 2015, at Rose Hill Cemetery.
Her parents Gersh and Sofia Shvartsman, as well as George Portman, born on Oct. 23, 1939, and her husband of 41 years before he passed in 2007, predeceased her.
She was born Jan. 5, 1943, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, to the late Gersh and Sofia Shvartsman. She attended school in Brest, Belarus, before moving back to her native town of Kiev, Ukraine, where her ancestry included cantors and rabbis.
Blumilla graduated in 1965 with master’s degrees in piano performance, accompanying and teaching from the Music College in Kiev, the top conservatory in Ukraine and one of the most highly regarded conservatories in the former Soviet Union. She married George Portman in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1965.
After graduating, she performed, taught and accompanied for 19 years until she and her family immigrated in 1980 to Kansas City in the United States as she wanted her children to grow up without being forced to fight wars or be persecuted for being Jewish. With the help of the local Jewish community and only $300 to her family’s name, she purchased a piano and began teaching students in Kansas City and helped support her family.
Blumilla spent most of her life in the U.S. working long hours in multiple jobs. She started working as an interpreter to the Russian speaking community at the Menorah Medical Center. Her focus since then was music, initially as an accompanist with the UMKC Ballet Division. Blumilla spent most of her career in Kansas City teaching piano privately at home and at the Toon Shop Village Music Academy. Many of her students went on to compete and win state and national piano competitions.
She taught music and accompanied the ballet in the Kansas City, Missouri, school district from 1990 – 2006, when she retired. She continued to work with the Kansas City Ballet as well as the Alvin Ailey Summer Camp ballet. Blumilla was also very active in the Jewish and ethnic music community, as a director of her band, Tizmoret, playing performances at many festivals, concerts, and events in and around Kansas City.
Blumilla was a very social person, a connector and respected close friend to many, many people in the Kansas City area in the Russian, Jewish and music communities. Blumilla was a member of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah and the National Music Teacher Association.
Most of all, Blumilla was a very devoted daughter, wife and mother. Family was everything for her and the driving source of meaning to her life. Blumilla Portman is survived by son: Gary (Igor) Portman, Dallas, Texas; son and daughter-in-law: Boris (Borislav) Portman and Tanya (Tetiana) Portman, and grandson, David Gregory Portman, all of Austin, Texas.
Blumilla missed her husband greatly after he passed and she passed on what would have been his birthday.
Contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society, The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah or Jewish Family Services of Greater Kansas City.