Acclaimed musician known for interpretations of Brahms and Beethoven was forced to play left-handed for years, before successful treatment in 1990s
Leon Fleisher, whose career as an acclaimed US concert pianist continued despite losing the use of his right hand, has died aged 92. His son Julian said he died of
cancer, at a hospice in Baltimore on Sunday.
Born to eastern European Jewish immigrants in San Francisco in 1928, Fleisher was a child prodigy who, aged four, would repeat the piano phrases his older brother had been learning, without teaching. He played his first public concert aged eight, and began being taught by star pianist Artur Schnabel the following year. He made his debut with the
New York Philharmonic Orchestra, at the city’s Carnegie Hall, when he was 16.