Earl Wild

Earl Wild (born November 26, 1915) is an American pianist known especially for his transcriptions of classical music and jazz. Wild is recognized widely as a leading virtuoso of his generation. (Harold C. Schonberg called him a supervirtuoso in the Horowitz class). [Harold C. Schonberg, "The Great Pianists from Mozart to the Present", Simon & Schuster, 1963/1987]

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Wild was a precocious child and studied under Selmar Janson, Simon Barere and Egon Petri, amongst others. As a teenager, he started making transcriptions of romantic music and composition.

He is said to have been the first pianist to perform a recital on U.S. television (in 1939, in his capacity as staff pianist for NBC), and also the first pianist to stream a performance over the internet (in 1997).

In 1942, Arturo Toscanini invited him for a performance of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", the first for orchestra and soloist, which was a resounding success and made him a household name. During World War II, Wild served in the United States Navy as a musician and after the war moved to the newly formed American Broadcasting Company (ABC) as a staff pianist, conductor and composer until 1968. Wild is renowned for masterclasses he held throughout the world, from Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo to the United States.

Wild, who is openly gay, [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/arts/music/27tomm.html New York Times, November 27, 2005] "90? Who's 90? Just Give Him a Piano"] lives in Palm Springs, California [http://www.earlwild.com/interviews/losangeles.html] with his partner, Michael Rolland Davis.

References

ources

http://www.sonyclassical.com/artists/wild/bio.htmlhttp://www.wosu.org/archive/jfk/local.php

External links

* http://www.earlwild.com/
* http://ivoryclassics.com/