pianist
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Conlon Nancarrow *X 27 1912 — The Life You Give
Conlon Nancarrow was an iconoclastic American composer who wrote in an utterly new way using new instrumental resources. While isolated from the main currents of music, he was virtually ignored by the public and his colleagues until the 1970s. In the 1980s composer György Ligeti said Nancarrow was writing “the best music by any living…
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Emil Gilels *X 19 1916 — The Life You Give
Emil Gilels, born Emil Grigoryevich Gilels, Oct. 6 [Oct. 19, New Style], 1916, in Odessa, Ukraine, is the concert pianist admired for his superb technique, tonal control, and disciplined approach. Gilels began piano studies at age 6 and gave his first public concert in 1929 at age 13. In 1933 he gained top honours in…
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Edwin Fischer *X 6 1886 — The Life You Give
Edwin Fischer was a Swiss pianist, conductor, and educator during the first half of the 20th century. He was known for his expressive interpretations of the piano music of J.S. Bach and Mozart. Fischer was born in 1886 in Basle, Switzerland, and he started playing the piano when he was four years old. Both of…
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Glenn Gould *IX 25 1932 — The Life You Give
Glenn Gould, born Glenn Herbert Gold, September 25, 1932, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is the pianist known for his contrapuntal clarity and brilliant, if often unorthodox, performances. Gould studied piano from the age of 3, began composing at 5, and entered the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto at 10, earning its associate degree in…
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Ray Charles *IX 23 1930 — The Life You Give
Ray Charles, born Ray Charles Robinson, September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia, U.S.A., is the pianist, singer, composer, bandleader, and leading entertainer billed as “the Genius” who was credited with the early development of soul music, a style based on a melding of gospel, rhythm and blues, and jazz music. When Charles was an infant…
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Vladimir Horowitz *IX 18 1903 / The Life You Give
Vladimir Horowitz, born September 18 [Old Style], 1903, in Berdichev, Russia [now in Ukraine], is the virtuoso pianist in the Romantic tradition who was celebrated for his flawless technique and an almost orchestral quality of tone. Horowitz’s performances of works by Franz Liszt, Sergey Rachmaninoff, Frédéric Chopin, Aleksandr Scriabin, Domenico Scarlatti, and Sergey Prokofiev were…
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The Life You Give: Bill Evans *VIII 16 1929
Bill Evans, born William John Evans, August 16, 1929, in Plainfield, New Jersey, U.S.A., is the jazz pianist known for lush harmonies and lyrical improvisation, one of the most influential pianists of his time. Evans’s first piano teacher was his mother; he also studied violin and flute. He graduated with a music teaching degree from…
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The Life You Give: Enrique Granados *VII 27 1867
Enrique Granados, born July 27, 1867, in Lérida, Spain, is the pianist and composer who was a leader of the movement toward nationalism in late 19th-century Spanish music. Granados made his debut as a pianist at 16. He studied composition in Barcelona with Felipe Pedrell, the father of Spanish nationalism in music. He studied piano…
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The Life You Give: Alexis Weissenberg *VII 26 1929
If one wanted to make a biographical feature film about a classical musician, the life of the Bulgarian-American-French pianist Alexis Weissenberg would furnish ideal subject material. Born in Sofia in 1929, Weissenberg was taught to play the piano by his mother. Several members of her family were Vienna Conservatory-trained musicians, and Weissenberg grew up in…
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The Life You Give: George Walker *VI 27 1922
Although he started out as a highly promising concert pianist in a grand style (some of his most prominent concerts featured concertos by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Brahms), George Walker was writing substantial music from his mid-twenties. By the time he was 40, he had solidly established himself as a flexible, fully contemporary composer and it…
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The Life You Give: Robert Schumann *1810
Robert Schumann, born Robert Alexander Schumann, June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Saxony [Germany], is the Romantic composer renowned particularly for his piano music, songs (lieder), and orchestral music. Many of his best-known piano pieces were written for his wife, the pianist Clara Schumann. Schumann’s father was a bookseller and publisher. After four years at a…
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The Life You Give: Rubén González *1919
Rubén González was one of the last of Cuba’s great Afro-Cuban piano players. Although he had played and recorded with the band led by Enrique Jorrín, the creator of the cha-cha, for a quarter of a century, he had retired from music by the mid-’80s. Things began to change when González recorded with the Afro-Cuban…
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The Life You Give: Sviatoslav Richter *1915
Sviatoslav Richter, born Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter, on March 7 [March 20, New Style], 1915, Zhitomir, Ukraine, Russian Empire [now Zhytomyr, Ukraine], is the pianist whose technical virtuosity combined with subtle introspection, made him one of the preeminent pianists of the 20th century. Though his repertoire was enormous, he was especially praised for his interpretations of…
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The Virtuous Black XXI: Nina Simone
Nina Simone, born Eunice Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina, U.S.A., is the singer who created urgent emotional intensity by singing songs of love, protest, and Black empowerment in a dramatic style, with a rough-edged voice. A precocious child, Simone played piano and organ in girlhood. She became sensitive to racism when…
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The Life You Give: Claudio Arrau *1903
Claudio Arrau, born February 6 1903, in Chillán, Chile, was one of the most-renowned pianists of the 20th century. Arrau’s father, an eye doctor, died when Arrau—the youngest of three children—was one year old. His mother supported the family by giving piano lessons and must have been gratified when her own son proved to be…
Sila Blume 