Fizdale, Robert

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Fizdale, Robert

Fizdale, Robert, American pianist; b. Chicago, April 12, 1920; d. N.Y., Dec. 6, 1995. He studied with Ernest Hutcheson at the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. He formed a piano duo with Arthur Gold, and they made their professional debut at N.Y/s New School for Social Research in 1944 in a program devoted entirely to John Cage’s music for prepared pianos. They toured widely in the U.S., Europe, and South America; works were written specially for them by Barber, Milhaud, Poulenc, Auric, Thomson, Dello Joio, and Rorem. With Gold, Fizdale publ. a successful book, Misia (N.Y., 1979), on the life of Maria Godebska, a literary and musical figure in Paris early in the century. He retired in 1982.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire