Peabody Institute, where he taught for decades, salutes Leon Fleisher

After his death on Aug. 2, 2020, Leon Fleisher was eulogized by Baltimore’s Peabody Institute, where he had taught for decades. Here is an excerpt:

The name of Leon Fleisher has been synonymous with the Peabody Institute for more than six decades, his home since 1959. His remarkable gifts as a musician, pianist and teacher were matched only by his charm, wit, intelligence and warmth as a human being.

Tragedy struck in the early 1960s, when Fleisher began experiencing what he called a “creeping numbness” in his right hand and a loss of function in his right index finger. He was diagnosed with focal dystonia, a neurological condition that affected the muscles of his right hand, causing them to curl inward toward his palm. What followed was a period of despair so deep that he considered suicide, he later revealed.

While searching for a cure for his condition, Fleisher channeled his creative efforts into mastering the left-hand piano repertoire, including works by Ravel, Prokofiev and Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in World War I.

He also renewed his dedication to conducting and instruction. At Peabody, where he was appointed the Andrew W. Mellon Chair of Piano, he carried on a tradition of classical pedagogy descending directly from Beethoven and handed down generationally through Carl Czerny, Theodor Leschetizky and Fleisher’s own teacher, Artur Schnabel. Fleisher became music director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1970 and associate conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 1973.

In the 1990s, through a combination of deep massage and Botox injections, Fleisher was able to regain sufficient use of his right hand, enabling him to resume playing piano with both hands. What followed was a career renaissance of performances and recordings.

In 2003, Fleisher formed the Fleisher-Jacobson Duo with his wife, also a pianist and Peabody faculty member. Together they gave concerts worldwide and recorded for Sony Classical. Fleisher released a solo album, "Two Hands” (2004), which went to the Top 5 on Billboard magazine’s classical albums chart and was celebrated by critics as one of the best recordings of 2004.

In 2006, Fleisher received the honor of Commander in the Order of Arts and Letters by the Minister of Culture of the French government. That same year, a documentary about his experience with focal dystonia directed by Nathaniel Kahn was nominated for an Oscar for best short documentary. In 2007, Fleisher received the Kennedy Center Honors, with the center’s chairman Stephen A. Schwarzman describing him as “a consummate musician whose career is a moving testament to the life-affirming power of art.”

Once again, Fleisher was celebrated for his tour-de-force performances. "If Bach had a modern piano, this is how he’d play it," wrote critic Harvey Steiman in the Baltimore Sun.

Fleisher’s memoir, My Nine Lives, co-written with music critic Anne Midgette, was published in November 2010, the same year he was named Instrumentalist of the Year by London’s Royal Philharmonic Society.

Throughout his career, Fleisher maintained an international schedule of master classes, performances and orchestral guest-conducting into his early 90s. Generations of his students have said that his guidance and mentorship has informed not only their playing, but also their relationship to the world.

“I loved studying with him, and I hope I was appreciative at the time because he gave me hundreds and hundreds of hours out of his private life,” said pianist André Watts, who studied with Fleisher in the 1960s, in a 2018 interview with the Peabody Post. “But it was only after I left from studying with Leon, when I started to teach, that I realized to what degree he gave thought and care to teaching me.”

In 2012, Fleisher donated his concert and master-class programs, press material, correspondence, itineraries, photographs, clippings, personal papers and memorabilia to the Peabody Archives. More than 1,000 of these items have been digitized and are available online through the Fleisher digital collection.

“It seems simplistic to say that there was no one else like Leon,” Bronstein said. “But that is the essence of it. We were extremely fortunate to have had this man in our midst for so many years. His impact here is profound and lasting, and his absence will be felt keenly throughout the Peabody community. We have lost a giant.”