Renowned American pianist and sought-after teacher Gary Graffman was born in New York on October 14, 1928. Son of violinist Vladimir Graffman, whose teacher had been Leopold Auer before emigrating from St. Petersburg to the United States, he learned to play the piano at the age of three and entered the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia four years later, to study with Isabelle Vengerova. Graduating in 1946, he continued his studies at Columbia University and with Rudolf Serkin and Vladimir Horowitz in classes at the Marlboro Music Festival. Gary Graffman was already a promising pianist, having performed with Eugene Ormandy and won the Leventritt Competition in 1949. His solo career developed through recitals around the world and recordings for Columbia Records, with numerous recordings of the Romantic repertoire (Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Beethoven, Rachmaninov), and a Prokofiev 3rd Concerto with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra in 1966. In the 1970s, Gary Graffman performed with the Guarneri Quartet and the Juilliard String Quartet, and came to public attention with his interpretation of Gershwin pieces, notably Rhapsody in Blue, for the soundtrack of Woody Allen's 1979 film Manhattan. However, two years earlier, a sprained ring finger on his right hand had forced him to modify his playing, but as the illness worsened, he had to give up the use of this hand and interrupt his activity as a pianist. He turned to writing and photography, before teaching at the Curtis Institute. Appointed in 1980, he took over as director of the institution six years later, serving as president from 1995 until his retirement in 2006. A respected teacher, he continues to play scores written for the left hand, such as Korngold's Concerto for the Left Hand in 1985, Ned Rorem's Piano Concerto No. 4, which he premiered in 1993, Daron Hagen's Seven Last Words in 2001, and Gaea, composed by William Bolcom for himself and Leon Fleisher, who was suffering from the same disease. On December 27, 2025, Gary Graffman died at the age of 97.
