Liberace

Liberace was an American pianist and entertainer born in West Allis, Wisconsin, on 16 May 1919, and died in Palm Springs, California, on 4 February 1987. His significance lies in combining serious pianistic training with a mass spectacle that brought classical music and popular repertoire to a very broad audience.

He studied with Florence Bettray Kelly in Milwaukee and, by about the age of fourteen, was already playing with a trio in an ice-cream parlour. He made his debut at seventeen with the Society of Musical Arts in Milwaukee and, in January 1940, appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performing Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2. That same year he moved to New York, where he worked in nightclubs; initially he used the pseudonym Walter Busterkeys, though he eventually used only his stage surname. Following tours with United Service Organizations shows, in 1952 he began a television series that was broadcast weekly in the United States and Canada until 1956.

In the mid-1950s his recordings enjoyed great commercial success, and his concerts at Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden drew full houses. His stage presentation, with dazzling costumes, carefully designed lighting and candelabra with lit candles on the piano, was as distinctive as his advocacy of family, religion and patriotism, which was sincere yet heightened in a sentimental tone. His programmes blended arrangements of classical and popular works with virtuosic technique. His final public performance took place at Radio City Music Hall on 3 November 1986.