The 50th Annual Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Lecture-Performance: Leon Fleisher

March 07, 2010 |

Photo by Joanne Savio

Leon Fleisher is considered to be one of the great pianists of the past century, despite the fact that he was forced to play with only one hand for a significant portion of his career. Fleisher will be the featured artist for Goucher College’s 50th Annual Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Lecture-Performance, held on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at 7 p.m. in Kraushaar Auditorium.

Due to overwhelming interest in this event, no more tickets are available.  But you may view the performance live online at www.goucher.edu/live.

Born in 1928, Fleisher made his piano début at age eight, began studies with the legendary pianist Artur Schnabel at nine, made his San Francisco Symphony début at 14, then he had his Carnegie Hall début at two years later playing with the New York Philharmonic under the great conductor Pierre Monteux. He was well on his way to conquering the music world at 16, having been singled out as “the pianistic find of the century” by Monteux.

Fleisher was the first American to win the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition in 1952. He made touchstone recordings with conductor/composer George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra, and for a dozen years he appeared in all the world’s major music centers to great acclaim until, in 1965, he was struck with a neurological affliction known as focal dystonia that rendered two fingers of his right hand immobile.

Undeterred – though his doctors said he would never play again – Fleisher became an inspirational teacher and an inspired conductor. He began conducting in 1967, and his accomplishments include tenures as associate conductor of the Baltimore Symphony and as music director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and of the Tanglewood Music Center, as well as enthusiastically received performances with the Baltimore Opera.

Meanwhile, he also continued to play piano, revitalizing the left-handed repertory. Though limited for nearly 40 years in his options for performance pieces, he succeeded in creating definitive interpretations of Ravel and Britten.

Fleisher underwent brain surgery and years of trials to restore the use of his right hand. It wasn’t until the mid-1990s, however, that experimental treatments using a regimen of Rolfing massage and Botox injections finally restored the mobility in his hand.

He has since been playing with both hands, winning enormous acclaim for his 2004 recording aptly titled Two Hands, his first two-handed album in more than 40 years. Fleisher’s story is the subject of the 2006 Oscar- and Emmy-nominated documentary film Two Hands, written and directed by Nathaniel Kahn.

In 2005, Fleisher was honored by the French government and was named Commander in the French Order of Arts and Letters, the highest rank of its kind. He received the 2007 Kennedy Center Honors at the 30th annual celebration of the arts. In 2008 – in conjunction with his 80th birthday – Fleisher’s early recordings on Sony Masterworks, which are regarded as some of the greatest in classical music, were re-released and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Fleisher continues to perform, including recent appearances in New York, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, and San Francisco, and internationally in London, Brussels, Lucerne, Singapore, Tokyo, Vancouver and Toronto.

He holds numerous honors, including the Johns Hopkins University President’s Medal and honorary doctorates from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Boston Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Juilliard School of Music, and Peabody Institute.

He is working on a book for Doubleday with acclaimed writer/music critic Anne Midgette, planned for release in 2010.

For almost five decades, the annual Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Lecture-Performance has featured notable musicians, including Marilyn Horne, Isaac Stern, Yo-Yo Ma, Aaron Copland, Ravi Shankar, and Cyrus Chestnut. Established in 1959 with a gift from the Louis and Henrietta Blaustein Foundation, the Rosenberg Lecture-Performance honors the late Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg, the latter a 1921 Goucher alumna.