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Born: February 19, 1915 - Chester, Wisconsin, USA
Died: January 13, 2015 - Brunswick, Maine, USA |
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The American pianist, composer, and teacher of music, Frank Glazer, was the sixth child of Benjamin and Clara Glazer, Jewish emigrants from Lithuania. The family moved to Milwaukee in 1919. His first piano lessons were given by his sister Blanche (1907-1920); later he was taught by several local musicians. He was educated in Milwaukee Public Schools, and graduated the city's North Division High School in 1932. In his teenage years, he played in his brothers' dance band, his high school band and vaudeville. Alfred Strelsin, a New York City signage manufacturer and arts patron, provided the funds for Glazer to travel to Berlin in 1932 to study with Artur Schnabel; he also studied with Arnold Schoenberg.
Frank Glazer then taught piano in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Strelsin urged him to make his New York debut, telling him, "If you don't start by the time you're 21, forget it". Glazer made his debut at Town Hall in New York City on October 20, 1936, with a program of J.S. Bach, Johannes Brahms, Schubert and Chopin. He played this program again in 2006, to celebrate his 70th anniversary of public performance. In 1939 Glazer performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitzky. Glazer served in the United States Army as an interpreter from 1943 to 1945 in Germany and France.
In the early 1950's, Frank Glazer had his own television show called Playhouse 15 in Milwaukee. On September 6, 1952, he married classical singer Ruth Gevalt (1910-2006). With his wife, Ruth, he founded in the 1970's the Saco River Festival in Maine, a summer chamber series. From 1965 until 1980, he taught at the Eastman School of Music; among his students Myriam Avalos and Martin Amlin. In 1980, he left Eastman and became artist in residence at Bates College in Maine.
Frank Glazer has been called "the greatest interpreter of the piano music of Erik Satie". In the 1960's he recorded the complete piano music of Satie for the Vox label.
Frank Glazer died at the age of 99 on January 13, 2015. His brother David was a clarinetist who performed with the New York Woodwind Quintet for more than 35 years. |
