Join us to Welcome our
2010 Artist in Residence
Leon Fleisher returns
"to the place of a most powerful influence" in his life.
"Suddenly I realized that the most important thing in my life wasn't playing with my two hands; it was music." -- Leon Fleisher
This is exactly the spirit Leon Fleisher brings to the podium.
It is not about him, it is not about the orchestra,
it is about the music.
On Sunday July 18 at 5:00 PM, renowned concert artist Leon Fleisher will appear as conductor and solo pianist with the Monteux School Orchestra in an All- Mozart Concert to benefit The Pierre Monteux School. Mr. Fleisher, who first came to Hancock in 1943, will be returning after an absence of almost five decades.
A little-known fact among Fleisher aficionados -- and many associated with the Pierre Monteux School as well -- is the role Fleisher played in the first year of L'Ecole Monteux (1943) -- as described in John Canarina's biography, Pierre Monteux, Maître:
"The first enrollees were just ... a small group of students. They met in the Monteuxs' summer home, a kind of large cabin on the shore of Taunton Bay. There was no orchestra to work with, "merely" two teenage pianists named Leon Fleisher and Vera Franceschi, who played scores four-handed at a single keyboard. Leon and Vera were both from San Francisco, were they had come to Monteux's attention." [pp. 223-224]
Photo: Joanne Savio
Leon Fleisher was born in San Francisco in 1928. He had his piano debut at the age of eight, began studies with Artur Schnabel at nine, made his San Francisco Symphony debut at 14, and had his Carnegie Hall debut at 16 playing with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Monteux. He won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition in Belgium in 1952, became one of the most sought-after soloists and recitalists in the world's finest concert halls, and began a rich series of recordings. His landmark version of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms concertos as well as his solo recordings of Schubert would become cult classics.
When the loss of the use of his right
hand in 1965 forced a radical change in his musical life for more than 30
years, Fleisher followed two parallel careers - in teaching and conducting,
which he studied with Pierre Monteux. He began conducting in 1967, founding the
Theatre Chamber Players at the Kennedy Center and shortly thereafter in 1970
becoming the music director of the Annapolis Symphony. 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 Orchestra of Europe and the Gustav Mahler Chamber
Orchestra. His 2007-08 US tour conducting the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra was
met with popular and critical acclaim and led to subsequent concerts and
recording sessions in Germany in the summer of 2008.
Fleisher never gave up the idea of playing piano with both hands again. Experimental treatments using a regimen of rolfing and 'botulinum toxin' (botox) injections finally restored the mobility in Fleisher's hand, and for nearly a decade he has played with both hands, winning enormous acclaim for his recital and orchestral performances.
Tickets in advance, $50. Concert/Dinner Reception at Le Domaine Restaurant, $150
Checks payable to: Pierre Monteux School. Send to Benefit Concert, PO Box 457, Hancock, ME 04640
