Leon Fleisher

A San Francisco native, Leon Fleisher studied with Karl Ulrich Schnabel and Artur Schnabel, whom he regards as his most important early mentor both as a pianist and as a teacher.

In 1944, at age 16, Mr. Fleisher made his debut with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Monteux. He went on to become the first American to win the Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition in Belgium.

His celebrated collaboration with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra resulted in a series of recordings, among them the Beethoven and Brahms piano concerti that have remained classics to this day.

In the early 1960s, Fleisher became a victim of repetitive stress injury resulting from intense practice at the keyboard. He focused on teaching and left-hand compositions for several years, working with students at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and the Tanglewood Music Center near Boston. In 1995, he responded to specialist treatment, and resumed two-handed performances.

Holder of the Andrew W. Mellon Chair at the Peabody Conservatory of Music since 1959, Mr. Fleisher serves on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.