back to listings >

LEON FLEISHER OPENS GPAC RECITAL SERIES
8/25/08

Germantown Performing Arts Centre

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 25, 2008

 

 

LEON FLEISHER OPENS GPAC RECITAL SERIES    

 

Renowned pianist, conductor, and teacher, Leon Fleisher will open the Recital Series at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre on Saturday, September 27 at 8 p.m.  The concert will mark the inaugural performance for GPAC's new Steinway concert grand in the Germantown Performing Arts Centre's Fifteenth Anniversary Season - The Year of the Piano.  

 

Leon Fleisher's remarkable career spans over six decades.  He made his New York Philharmonic debut at the age of sixteen.  For over twenty years, Fleisher was lauded as an international soloist. His career was suddenly curtailed when he lost movement in the fingers of his right hand.  Not to be silenced, Fleisher began teaching and conducting, as he learned the extensive repertoire for piano left-hand and began concertizing anew.  In a comeback to rival that of cyclist Lance Armstrong, Fleisher has recently regained the use of his right hand through new treatments, and has just released his first two-handed CD in over 40 years to critical acclaim.

 

WHO:              Leon Fleisher

 

WHEN:             Saturday, September 27, 8 p.m.

 

TICKETS:         Single tickets are $40, $50, and $60, plus handling fee, and are available now by calling (901) 751-7500 or online at www.GPACweb.com.

 

Box Office Hours: Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. or

Noon on day of performance.  All major credit cards accepted.

 

WHERE:           Germantown Performing Arts Centre

                        1801 Exeter Road

                        Germantown, TN 38138

 

CONTACT:      For more information or to arrange an interview with the artist(s), please contact Carrie Corbett at (901) 751-7501 or carrie@gpacweb.com.

 

IMAGES:         See attached

 

ARTIST WEB:   http://www.franksalomon.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=36

 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:

 

Renowned pianist, conductor and teacher Leon Fleisher, now in his sixth decade before the public, started piano lessons in his native San Francisco at age four, and gave his first recital at eight. A year later he began studying with the great German pianist Artur Schnabel, and by 16, in 1944, made his debut with the New York Philharmonic. He was the first American to win the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgium competition, in 1952. Fleisher's career was on a smooth upward trajectory for the next dozen years: he concertized all over the world with every major orchestra and conductor, gave recitals everywhere, and made numerous touchstone recordings with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra of the piano concertos of Beethoven, Brahms, as well as pieces by Grieg, Schumann, and Rachmaninov (all available on CD).

 

Fleisher was suddenly struck silent when two fingers of his right hand became immobile in 1965. Undergoing many treatments that gave only temporary relief, he was forced to "retire" when only 37 years old. This was the defining moment in his career until recently, when he began treatments that finally helped relieve the neurological affliction known as focal dystonia that had been plaguing him for more than half his life. For several years, Fleisher has been playing - infrequently - with both hands again, and has just made his first two-hand recording in 40 years, a sort of musical biography called Two Hands. Its repertoire ranges from J.S. Bach and Domenico Scarlatti via Chopin and Debussy to Franz Schubert's monumental final Piano Sonata in B flat Major [Vanguard Classics].

 

In the nearly 40 years since Leon Fleisher's keyboard career was so suddenly curtailed, he has followed two parallel careers - as conductor and teacher - while learning to play the extensive but limiting repertoire of compositions for piano left-hand. He began conducting in 1967, but never gave up the idea of playing with both hands again.

 

Mr. Fleisher's reputation as a conductor was quickly established when he founded the Theatre Chamber Players at the Kennedy Center in 1967 and became Music Director of the Annapolis Symphony in 1970. He made his New York conducting debut at the 1970 Mostly Mozart Festival and in 1973 became Associate Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony. He has appeared as guest conductor with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestras of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal and Detroit, among others. He also had a regular association with the New Japan Philharmonic as its Principal Guest Conductor, leading the orchestra in a series of concerts each season, as well as with the Chamber Music Orchestra of Europe and the Gustav Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

 

Teaching has been a crucially important element in Leon Fleisher's life. As a revered pedagogue, he has held the Andrew W. Mellon Chair at the Peabody Conservatory of Music since 1959, and also serves on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. From 1986-97 he was Artistic Director of the Tanglewood Music Center. His teaching activities at the Aspen, Lucerne, Ravinia and Verbier festivals, among others, have brought him in contact with students from all over the world. He has also given master classes at the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Paris Conservatory, the Ravel Academy at St. Jean de Luz, the Reina Sofia School in Madrid, the Mishkenot in Jerusalem and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

 

For several years, Fleisher has been playing with both hands again, and recently made his first two-hand recording in 40 years, the critically acclaimed Two Hands.  The same title was given a short documentary by Nathaniel Kahn nominated this year for an Academy Award.  In May 2007, his recording of the Brahms Piano Quintet with the Emerson Quartet was released to rave reviews and his recital and concerto appearances in recent years have re-affirmed his place among the legendary pianists and musicians of our time.  Forthcoming engagements include his annual appearances at Carnegie Hall; the Beethoven "Emperor" Concerto with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood and on subscription; a recital in the Lucerne Festival piano series, among many others.

 

In 2005, Fleisher was honored by the French government and was named to the rank of Commander in the French Order of Arts and Letters, the highest rank of its kind and received a Kennedy Center Honors Award for 2007. He and his wife-Katherine Jacobson-Fleisher-have opened their private life by regularly playing duos together for audiences around the world.

 

###