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 The
Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concert welcomes renowned pianist,
conductor and teacher Leon Fleisher to California State University,
Fresno for a concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 2, at the Concert Hall in
the Music Building.
He will play works by Bach, Stravinsky, Debussy, Albeniz and Chopin.
Fleisher, a former student of Arthur Schnabel, was the first American to
win the prestigious Queen Elizabeth of Belgium Competition in 1952. He
established a substantial global reputation over the years, but with the
loss of his right hand in 1965 to the neuromuscular afflication focal
dystonia, he was forced to dramatically alter his style.
Fleisher, turned to conducting and teaching and was an advocate and
accomplished performer of left-handed piano compositions. He created
left-handed versions of music composed for both hands and encouraged new
compositions for the left hand.
He underwent several different therapies before regaining – through
botox injections and massage – some use of his right hand in 1995 and
began concretizing with works from both the left- and two-handed
repertoire.
Vanguard Classics released an album about Fleisher, “Two Hands,” in
2004, and a film documentary with the same title was nominated for an
Academy Award in 2007. Fleisher also received 2007 Kennedy Center
Honors, and was described by Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen A.
Schwarzman as “a consummate musician whose career is a moving testament
to the life-affirming power of art.”
Fleisher has been a major teaching influence for such pianists as André
Watts, Yefin Bronfman, Louis Lortie and Lorin Hollander.
Fresno, Carnegie Hall, the Boston Symphony and the Lucerne Festival in
Switzerland are among his engagement during this 80th anniversary of his
birth in San Francisco.
Tickets are $12.50 general, $7 seniors and $5 students.
For ticket reservations and other information, call 559.278.2337 or
visit
www.keyboardconcerts.com/.
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