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Pianist Leon Fleisher at Blair for a three-day performance visit Feb. 6-9

Posted 2/2/2010

Esteemed pianist Leon Fleisher will perform in three concert events at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music in a rare Nashville appearance.  All events are free and open to all audiences. No tickets are needed. Free parking is available in South Garage on Children’s Way, across from Ingram Hall.

Saturday, Feb. 6, solo and duo piano recital, 8 p.m. in Ingram Hall
The Fleisher Duo – Leon Fleisher and Katherine Jacobson Fleisher -- will perform in a solo and duo piano recital. The program features Fleisher performing selections from Ländler for Piano from D. 790 (Op. 171) by Franz Schubert, Waltzes for Piano, Op. 39 by Johannes Brahms, and Valses nobles et sentimentales for Piano by Maurice Ravel. The duo will perform Slavonic Dances for Piano Four-Hands by Antonín Dvorák and La Valse for Piano Four Hands by Maurice Ravel, arranged by Lucien Garban. Fleisher will be available for CD autographs after the performance.

Sunday, Feb. 7, Fleisher conducts Vanderbilt Orchestra, 8 p.m. in Ingram Hall
Maestro Fleisher conducts the Vanderbilt Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, Op. 62, and performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No . 12 in A minor, K. 414. Conductor Robin Fountain will lead the second half of the program. A lobby reception follows the concert.

Tuesday, Feb. 9, Rehearsal with Blair String Quarter and Documentary screening, Ingram Hall
Fleisher joins the Blair String Quartet on Ingram Stage for an open rehearsal of the Piano Quintet by Brahms. The rehearsal is preceded by a screening of Nathaniel Kahn’s 18-minute Academy Awarded-nominated documentary on Mr. Fleisher, Two Hands, introduced by Mark Wait, Dean of the Blair School, at 7 p.m. The open rehearsal begins at 7:30 p.m.

In 1965, he was struck with a neurological affliction that rendered two fingers of his right hand immobile. For almost four decades, Fleisher continued to share his special gifts through performances of the repertoire for left-hand, as a conductor and teacher, never giving up the hope that he would play again with both hands. Through special treatments, he has been playing with both hands again in recent seasons and making critically-acclaimed recordings.

Recipient of the 2007 Kennedy Center Honors, subject of the 2006 Oscar-nominated short documentary Two Hands: The Leon Fleisher Story, legendary pianist Fleisher is celebrating his 80th year with leading musical organizations around the world. In addition to these performances, he marked his birthday in July as soloist and conductor of an all-Mozart program with the Baltimore Symphony, followed by concerts with the Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival and with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood. He will also be heard in his annual Carnegie Hall appearance and with such orchestras as the San Francisco Symphony and Janowski, the New York Philharmonic under Maazel and the London Philharmonic with Jurowski in London and at Lincoln Center and in Washington, DC.

For more information, contact the school main office at 322-7651, or visit the Web site at www.vanderbilt.edu/blair

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