Gary Graffman

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Gary Graffman (born 14 October 1928) is a classical pianist, teacher of piano and music administrator.

Graffman was born in New York City to Russian-Jewish parents. Having started piano at age 3, Graffman entered the Curtis Institute of Music at age 7 in 1936 as a piano student of Isabelle Vengerova. After graduating from Curtis in 1946, he made his professional solo debut with conductor Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. By the age of 20 Gary Graffman had made a name for himself world-wide as a classical pianist. In 1948 he won the prestigious Leventritt Award. He then furthered his piano studies with Rudolph Serkin at the Marlboro Music Festival and informally with Vladimir Horowitz.

From the outset Graffman pursued a successful piano career. He played with numerous orchestras and performed concerts and recitals internationally. Over the next three decades he toured and recorded extensively, performing solo and with orchestras around the globe. In 1964, he recorded Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic.

Probably Graffman's most famous recorded performance was for the soundtrack of the 1979 Woody Allen movie Manhattan in which he played George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, accompanied by the New York Philharmonic. Portions of the Philharmonic/Graffman version have been featured countless times in TV and movies over the last quarter century.

In 1979 he sprained the ring finger of his right hand. Because of this injury he began re-fingering some passages for that hand in such a way as to avoid using the affected finger; unfortunately this altered technique exacerbated the injury rather than ameliorating it, ultimately forcing him to stop using his right hand altogether. This setback encouraged him to pursue other interests such as writing, photography, and Oriental art. In 1980 he joined the faculty at the Curtis Institute where his career had begun; he served as its President from 1995 through May, 2006. He continues as a faculty member at Curtis teaching piano.

More recent evidence suggests that Graffman's injury may be due to focal dystonia, a neurological disorder that causes loss of function and uncontrollable curling in the fingers. Fellow pianist Leon Fleisher suffers from the disorder as well. [1] [2]

Shortly after joining the Curtis faculty he published a memoir, I Really Should Be Practicing, which ranks as one of the best-written and most entertaining such books.

Seven left-hand works have been commissioned for Graffman. In 1993, for example, he performed the world premiere of Ned Rorem's Piano Concerto No. 4, written specifically for the left hand, and in 2001 he premiered Daron Hagen's concerto Seven Last Words. The American composer William Bolcom composed his Concerto for Two Pianos, Left Hand for Graffman and his close friend Leon Fleisher, who has also suffered from debilitating problems with his right hand. It received its first performance in Baltimore in April 1996. The concerto is constructed in such a way that it can be performed in one of three ways, with either piano part alone with reduced orchestra, or with both piano parts and the two reduced orchestras combined into a full orchestra.

Through his longstanding service and devotion to music, Graffman has received honorary doctoral degrees, was honored by the cities of Philadelphia and New York, and received the Governor's Arts Award by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In addition to his administrative responsibilities, Graffman remains active as a teacher and coach of piano and chamber music. His notable students include the piano virtuosos Lydia Artymiw, Lang Lang, and Yuja Wang.