Gary Graffman, the American pianist whose international career was curtailed by a neurological condition and who went on to become one of the most influential teachers and administrators in U.S. musical life, has died at the age of 97. His death was confirmed in New York following a short illness.
Born in Manhattan in 1928 to Russian immigrant parents, Graffman showed exceptional musical promise from an early age. He was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music while still a child, studying piano with Isabelle Vengerova, and later worked with figures such as Vladimir Horowitz and Rudolf Serkin. His emergence on the international stage was sealed in 1949, when he won the prestigious Leventritt Competition.
A major concert career
Over the following three decades, Graffman appeared with leading orchestras across the United States and Europe, performing a core Romantic repertoire that included concertos by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Brahms, Chopin, and Beethoven. He collaborated with conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy, George Szell, and Zubin Mehta, and built a reputation for musical intelligence and reliability rather than flamboyant showmanship.
One of his most widely heard performances was Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, featured in Woody Allen’s 1979 film Manhattan, which brought his playing to audiences far beyond the concert hall.
Illness and reinvention
In the late 1970s, Graffman developed focal dystonia, a neurological disorder that gradually deprived him of the use of his right hand. By the early 1980s, his performing career had effectively come to an end. Unlike some colleagues affected by the same condition, he never regained full use of the hand and instead redirected his artistic life.
Graffman continued to perform works written for the left hand alone, including pieces commissioned in the early 20th century by Paul Wittgenstein, as well as newer works by composers such as Ned Rorem and William Bolcom. At the same time, he turned increasingly toward teaching and institutional leadership.
Teacher and administrator
Graffman joined the piano faculty at Curtis in 1980 and was appointed director of the institute in 1986, later becoming its president in 1995. He held both positions until his retirement in 2006, shaping generations of young musicians and reinforcing Curtis’s international standing.
Among his students were pianists Lang Lang and Yuja Wang, both of whom have frequently acknowledged his influence as a mentor. Even after stepping down from administrative duties, Graffman remained closely associated with the institute and its teaching mission.
Legacy
In later years, Graffman continued to perform selected repertoire and to reflect publicly on the realities of a life on stage, publishing the memoir I Really Should Be Practicing. To mark his 85th birthday, Sony released a comprehensive boxed set of his recordings, underlining the breadth of a career that bridged virtuoso performance, pedagogy, and cultural leadership.
Gary Graffman leaves a lasting legacy not only through his recordings, but through the many musicians he trained and the institutional imprint he left on American musical education.
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