Leon Fleisher

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Leon Fleisher (born July 23, 1928) is an American pianist and conductor.

He was born in San Francisco, California, where he started studying the piano at age 4. He made his public debut at age 8 and played with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Monteux at 16. He studied with Artur Schnabel.

He made a memorable series of recordings with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra before losing the use of his right hand due to focal dystonia. He continued performing the left-handed repertoire until he quite recently regained the use of his right hand through a combination of massage and botox injections. He also undertook conducting during this time, serving at one time as Music Director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra in Maryland. He is particularly well-known for his interpretations of the piano concerti of Brahms and Beethoven. In 2004, Vanguard Classics released Leon Fleisher's first "two-handed" recording in over 40 years, entitled "Two Hands," to critical acclaim. "Two Hands" is also the title of a short documentary on Fleisher by Nathaniel Kahn which was nominated for an Academy Award for best short subject on January 23, 2007. Fleisher received the 2007 Kennedy Center Honors. Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen A. Schwarzman described him as "a consummate musician whose career is a moving testament to the life-affirming power of art."

Fleisher's musical interests extend beyond the central German Romantic repertory. The American composer William Bolcom composed his Concerto for Two Pianos, Left Hand for Fleisher and his close friend Gary Graffman, who has also suffered from debilitating problems with his right hand. It received its first performance in Baltimore in April 1996. The concerto is constructed in such a way that it can be performed in one of three ways, with either piano part alone with reduced orchestra, or with both piano parts and the two reduced orchestras combined into a full orchestra.

He has continued to be involved in music, both conducting and teaching at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto; he is also closely associated with the Tanglewood Music Center. As a teacher, Fleisher has carried on a tradition that descends directly from Beethoven himself, handed down generationally through Carl Czerny, Theodor Leschetizky, Artur Schnabel, Fleisher himself, and then to hundreds of Fleisher's own piano students over nearly half a century. His influence on classical pianists of the current day, especially in North America, is enormous. Today his students are among piano faculty members at major music schools. Also among his students are such renowned concert pianists as Jonathan Biss, Yefim Bronfman, Naida Cole, Helene Grimaud, Lorin Hollander, Kevin Kenner, Konstantin Lifschitz, Louis Lortie, Andre Watts and Daniel Wnukowski.

[edit] Awards and Recognitions

Wikinews has related news:

Kennedy Center names 2007 honors recipients

Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition of Belgium

Leon Fleisher for piano (1952)

Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

"Instrumentalist of the Year", Musical America (1994)

Honorary doctorates from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Towson State University, The Boston Conservatory, and the Cleveland Institute of Music

Johns Hopkins University President's Medal.

Fleisher received the Kennedy Center Honors Award for 2007.^[1]