Leon Fleisher ranked among the foremost American pianists of his era until a severe affliction in his right hand prompted his withdrawal from the concert platform in 1965. He resurfaced with left-hand repertoire and began directing ensembles, yet avoided two-handed works until the late 1990s; around 1995 he resumed performing as a pianist using both hands. In his initial years before audiences he became closely linked to the Beethoven and Brahms concertos, the Mozart and Schubert sonatas, and pieces by American composers such as Kirchner, Copland, and Sessions. While limited to one hand he repeatedly programmed the Prokofiev Fourth and the Ravel Concerto in D major, both composed for left hand, and after regaining mobility in the 1990s he reclaimed much of his earlier repertoire. Recordings by Fleisher appear on Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, Vanguard, Albany, Orfeo, and Archipel.
Born in San Francisco on July 23, 1928, Fleisher started piano studies at age four and presented his first recital at six. Between 1938 and 1948 he trained with keyboard icon Artur Schnabel and delivered striking early performances, among them a 1942 appearance with the San Francisco Symphony and a 1944 engagement with the New York Philharmonic, both conducted by Pierre Monteux, who later instructed him in conducting.
After claiming first prize at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Belgium in 1952, Fleisher secured international prominence during the following decade. He stepped back from concertizing in 1965 while pursuing diagnosis for his still-unidentified condition. Conducting entered his activities in 1967 with the founding of the Washington, D.C.-based Theater Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center. In 1970 he became music director of the Annapolis Symphony, and three years later he was named associate conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Focal dystonia received its correct identification in the early 1990s, with effective treatments beginning in 1995. Botox injections entered his regimen in the new century and produced further progress. In 2003 Fleisher returned to Carnegie for his first recital there in four decades; the next year Vanguard issued Two Hands, his first two-handed album in more than forty years. A documentary of the same title appeared in 2006 and earned an Academy Award nomination. Kennedy Center Honors followed in 2007, and he published the memoir My Nine Lives in 2010. From 1959 until his death Fleisher served on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory, now the Institute, while also teaching at the Curtis Institute of Music and Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music. He died in Baltimore on August 2, 2020.
