Alexander Libermann (1896–1978) was a

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

-based pianist and educator who taught piano at Mills College. He completed his early musical training in Kiev, Russian Empire, before fleeing to Germany, where he studied with Egon Petri and

Ferrucio Busoni Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary f ...

, and France, where he was forced to live in hiding from Nazis. In 1947, he accepted an invitation from Petri to join the faculty at Mills College. He and his wife Stefa settled permanently in California, and he taught at Mills for 31 years until his death.Libermann, Alexander. A Comprehensive Approach to the Piano. Elinor Armer Ed. Berkeley: The Arif Press, 1984. Print. Libermann has a far-reaching influence, and is linked as an instructor to many professional musicians, including pianists

William Corbett Jones William Corbett-Jones is an American pianist who has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central America, Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Singapore. Education Corbett-Jones' private tea ...

and Lois Brandwynne, and pianist-composer Elinor Armer. In 1984, Armer compiled a series of his lectures into a volume entitled ''A Comprehensive Approach to the Piano,'' in which he discusses his method of playing the instrument. Central to this are the theories that the keys should be moved using the hand's natural "grasping" motion, and that music-making should be a largely mental phenomenon and pianists should therefore do much of their practicing in their heads.

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* http://www.pianoeu.com/petri.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Libermann, Alexander American classical pianists Male classical pianists American male pianists Russian classical pianists Mills College faculty Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Pupils of Egon Petri 1978 deaths 1896 births 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American pianists Musicians from Kyiv Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany