Leonard Pennario Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Leonard Pennario (July 9, 1924 – June 27, 2008) was an American classical pianist and composer.He was born in Buffalo, New York, and grew up in Los Angeles, attending Los Angeles High School remaining in L.A. for his entire career. He first came to notice when he performed Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto at age 12, with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The scheduled performer had fallen ill, and Pennario's piano playing had come to the attention of the conductor Eugene Goossens, who recommended him as the soloist after being assured by Pennario that he knew the work. In fact, he had never seen the music or even heard it, but he learned it in a week.He studied with Guy Maier, Olga Steeb, and Isabelle Vengerova and attended the University of Southern California, where he studied composition with Ernst Toch. World War II interrupted his career, and he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces in the China Burma India Theater, where his piano skills were soon realized and served well entertaining troops of the Air Transport Command operation known as "The Hump". He occasionally had to play around keys missing from the keyboards of the pianos at a couple of the more remote bases. He was discharged in 1946 as a staff sergeant and was awarded three Battle Stars. He had, however, made his debut, in uniform, with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall on November 17, 1943, with Artur Rodziński, playing Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1.Shortly after Sergei Rachmaninoff's death, the conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos invited Leonard Pennario to be the soloist at a memorial concert, playing the Second Piano Concerto with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Pennario became the first pianist after the composer himself to record all four Rachmaninoff piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. His recording of the Rachmaninoff 2nd Concerto was used for the film September Affair (1950), in which Joan Fontaine plays a concert pianist preparing to play the concerto.Beginning in the 1960s, he played in a renowned trio with the violinist Jascha Heifetz and the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. Miklós Rózsa wrote a piano concerto for Pennario, and he was the soloist in the first performance, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta.Pennario recorded over 60 LPs, most of them of composers dating from Chopin and later. He is perhaps best known for championing certain modern composers such as George Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, Rózsa, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, and Sergei Prokofiev. In 1958, he was tied with Walter Gieseking in terms of best-selling classical records involving the piano.Pennario retired from active performance and recording in the 1990s. He wrote some pieces of his own, such as Midnight on the Cliffs, March of the Lunatics, and a 4-hand arrangement of Chopin's Minute Waltz.He was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in October 2007.As well as being well represented in music encyclopedias, he was a Life Master in tournament bridge, and is listed
You have to play for the people; you have to play for an audience. You can't just go into the studio and make records, you know?
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Fact
1
He joined the Army in 1943, and was assigned to special services. He gave concerts at hospitals and military bases in the China-Burma-India theater.
2
When he was 12 years old, he learned Grieg's "Piano Concerto in a minor" in a week, so he could play it from memory with the Dallas Symphony. He made his Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 19, having never attended a music conservatory.
3
He made more than 60 recordings for Capitol and other labels. In 1959, he was the top-selling American-born classical pianist.
4
He said that making a recording in the 1960s with violinist Jascha Heifetz and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky was the "biggest thrill" of his life. The recording won a Grammy Award.
5
He continued to play recitals until the late 1990s.
6
He was also an expert bridge player. He once played in a celebrity foursome with actor Don Adams ("Get Smart"), band-leader Les Brown, and Jack Benny's daughter Joan.
7
Classical pianist.
8
Was a permanent member of the jury of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
Soundtrack
Title
Year
Status
Character
Delirious
1991
performer: "HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY NO. 2 IN C-SHARP MINOR"
Gala of Stars 1984
1984
TV Movie performer: "I Got Rhythm" variations
Julie
1956
performer: "Midnight On The Cliffs" / writer: "Midnight On The Cliffs"