Zeisler, Fannie Bloomfield (née Blumenfeld)

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Zeisler, Fannie Bloomfield (née Blumenfeld)

Zeisler, Fannie Bloomfield (née Blumenfeld), noted Austrian-American pianist; b. Bielitz, Austrian Silesia, July 16,1863; d. Chicago, Aug. 20,1927. Her original name was changed when the family settled in Chicago in 1868. Her first teachers there were Carl Wolfsohn and Bernhard Ziehn. She made her concert debut in Chicago on Feb. 26,1875, then went to Vienna, where she studied with Leschetizky (1878-83). From 1883 until 1893 she played annually in the U.S. In 1893 she made a tour of Germany and Austria, which established her reputation as one of the best women pianists; other European tours followed in 1894-95, 1898, 1902-03, 1911-12, and 1914. She then returned to Chicago, making her farewell appearance there on Feb. 25, 1925, in a special concert to mark her golden jubilee. On Oct. 18, 1885, she married Sigmund Zeisler, a Chicago lawyer.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire