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 accomplish ed performer of left-handed piano compositions. He createdleft-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/.
