Wild, Earl

Summary: Earl Wild was born in Pittsburgh in 1915. Wild served as pianist for the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937-1944) and gave a series of Liszt concerts (1944-1980s). Wild was also a significant transcriber of piano music, particularly of Chopin and Liszt pieces, and composed original music. In addition, Wild maintained a long concert career until his 90th year and held teaching positions at the Eastman School of Music, Pennsylvania State University, the Juilliard School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, Ohio State University and Carnegie Mellon University. Earl Wild died on January 23, 2010.

Full History: Earl Wild was born in Pittsburgh in 1915 and was one of the last in a long line of pianist/composers. He began his studies at the age of three and was nurtured in the romantic traditions of piano playing through his studies with Scharwenka pupil Selmar Jansen, Busoni pupil Egon Petri and Ravel pupil Paul Doguereau. Wilds musical personality was also significantly shaped by pianists he heard in his youth such as Sergei Rachmaninoff, Ignace Paderewski and Vladimir de Pachmann. Wild served as the pianist for the NBC Symphony Orchestra from 1937 to 1944 where he became the first American pianist to perform on television (1939) and the soloist for the only performance of Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue ever conducted by Arturo Toscanini (1942). Wilds many performances of the Rhapsody in Blue and the Concerto in F earned him wide recognition as a Gershwin interpreter during the early portion of his career.

...