Frank Glazer (February 19, 1915 – January 13, 2015) was an American pianist, composer, and teacher of music.

Career details

Glazer was born in

Chester, Wisconsin Chester is a town in Dodge County, Wisconsin. The population was 960 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated communities of Atwater and East Waupun are located in the town. History A post office called Chester was established in 1847, and remai ...

on February 19, 1915, the sixth child of Benjamin and Clara Glazer, Jewish emigrants from

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. The family moved to

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

in 1919. His first piano lessons were given by his sister Blanche (1907–1920); later he was taught by several local musicians. Frank Glazer 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 Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

. Alfred Strelsin, a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

signage manufacturer and arts patron, provided the funds for Glazer to travel to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

in 1932 to study with Artur Schnabel; he also studied with

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

. Glazer then taught piano in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. Strelsin urged Glazer 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 local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

in New York City on October 20, 1936, with a program of Bach, Brahms, Schubert and Chopin. He played this program again in 2006, to celebrate his seventieth anniversary of public performance. In 1939 Glazer performed with the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...

under Sergei Koussevitzky. Glazer served in the United States Army as an interpreter from 1943 to 1945 in Germany and France. In the early 1950s, Glazer had his own television show called ''Playhouse 15'' in Milwaukee. On September 6, 1952, he married classical singer Ruth Gevalt (1910–2006). (1) With his wife, Ruth, he founded in the 1970s the Saco River Festival in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

, a summer chamber series. From 1965 until 1980 Glazer taught at the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music (B.M ...

; among his students

Myriam Avalos Myriam Avalos (Avalos-Teie) (born Lima, Peru) is a classical pianist. Life She began to study the piano at age two. She gave her first public performance at age three, and shortly after that was admitted to the National Conservatory of Music in ...

and

Martin Amlin Martin Amlin (born June 12, 1953) is an American composer and pianist. He was born in Dallas, Texas.Martin Aml ...

. In 1980 Glazer left Eastman and became artist in residence at Bates College in Maine. Glazer has been called "the greatest interpreter of the piano music of

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

". In the 1960s he recorded the complete piano music of Satie for the Vox label. 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 The New York Woodwind Quintet is an ensemble-in-residence at the Juilliard School in New York City, originally appointed in 1987. At Juilliard, the members of the New York Woodwind Quintet present seminars each year for student woodwind ensembles, g ...

for more than 35 years.

References

Notes

(1) ''The Fountain of Youth: The Artistry of Frank Glazer'', by Duncan J Cumming (

VDM Verlag Omniscriptum Publishing Group, formerly known as VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, is a German publishing group headquartered in Riga, Latvia. Founded in 2002 in Düsseldorf, its book production is based on print-to-order technology. The company publi ...

, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2009).

External links

Frank Glazer's official website (www.FrankGlazer.in)Time in His Hands: Frank Glazer's musical light shines undimmed 70 years after his New York debut
, Doug Hubley, Bates Magazine Online, Fall 2006 edition.

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, published October 9, 2010.
Frank Glazer's Long Road
American Public Media, published March 2, 2012.
Maine Pianist Frank Glazer Dies at 99

Portland Press Herald The ''Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram'' is a morning daily newspaper with a website that serves southern Maine and is focused on the greater metropolitan area around Portland, Maine, in the United States. Founded in 1862, its roots e ...

, published January 13, 2015, updated January 14, 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:Glazer, Frank 1915 births 2015 deaths American classical pianists American male classical pianists American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Bates College faculty Jewish American musicians People from Dodge County, Wisconsin Musicians from Milwaukee Pupils of Maria Curcio Vaudeville performers People from Topsham, Maine 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century American pianists Classical musicians from Wisconsin 20th-century American male musicians North Division High School (Milwaukee) alumni 21st-century American Jews