95-year-old pianist who studied with Schnabel is still going strong

[Brian]

Pianist Frank Glazer says he's in his artistic prime.  

He plays beautifully, still perfecting skills while working the keys of a Steinway.

About the only concession he makes to age is he no longer performs pieces from memory since undergoing a quadruple bypass heart operation nine years ago.  

At 95, there remains a lot to learn.

"I'm playing better than ever," he says. "I feel I've worked all my life to get to this point. Now is not the time to quit."

Glazer, who grew up on Milwaukee's north side, is back in town preparing for a Monday concert at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.

Three hours of rehearsal? No problem.

Brush up on a program that will include works by Haydn, Schubert, Ravel and Chopin? That's what Glazer calls bliss.

"Every hour that I'm not paying a bill or going to the store, I'm at the piano," he says. "I'm playing an enormous repertoire. I'm living with great minds, great hearts. I'm up playing until midnight. I could say I'm wed to the piano."

People constantly tell him he looks great, not a day over 70.

"I feel like I'm 35," says Glazer, who has white hair and twinkling eyes and conducts the first 20 minutes of an interview while standing by a piano.


Catching up with Glazer is like reading the pages of a history book. The only difference is that with Glazer, the story is still unfolding.

For the last 31 years, he has been artist in residence at Bates College in Maine. His career has spanned vaudeville, early television (he used to host a show on WTMJ-TV), recording, composing and touring the world. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

And he and his wife, Ruth, a soprano, were married 54 years until her death in 2006. They met when she was seeking an accompanist for a recital. She told him: "I don't want a mere accompanist pussyfooting around - I want a pianist."

He goes back to old Milwaukee, a two-flat home on the north side where his Russian-born parents raised seven sons and had them all play instruments.

[...]


Glazer flowered. During one stretch as a senior at North Division High School, he went to classes in the morning, came home, changed into a tuxedo and dashed off to the Alhambra Theater downtown to play "Rhapsody in Blue" four shows a week.

In 1932, at the age of 17, several prominent patrons in town underwrote Glazer's journey to Berlin to study with renowned teacher Artur Schnabel. He packed a small steamer trunk and two valises, took a train to Cleveland then New York, and boarded a ship for Europe.

"Berlin was a very active place," he says. "The arts were strong, opera, music. The Nazis were fighting the communists and shouting at each other."

Hitler was rising to power.

By 1933, Glazer followed Schnabel to Italy. He also studied with pianist Leonard Shure in the United States.

Finally, in the fall of 1936, Glazer made his concert debut in New York's Town Hall, launching a long career. He has appeared frequently in Milwaukee, including one memorable concert in 1939, when more than 50,000 attended a night of classical music in Washington Park.

He attributes his long career to several factors.

"One is the genes," he says. "Another is a happy marriage."

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[jochanaan]

A good case for the hypothesis that performing music keeps us young. As long as one doesn't burn out or self-destruct in some way...

[Catison]

If he could play 90+ that would be awesome!