Hautzig, Walter

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Hautzig, Walter

Hautzig, Walter, Austrian-born American pianist and teacher; b. Vienna, Sept. 28, 1921. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Music, then left Austria after the rise of the Nazis to power, and went to Jerusalem and studied at the Cons, there. He continued his musical education at the Curtis Inst. of Music in Philadelphia with Harry Kaufmann and Mieczyslaw Munz; also in N.Y. with Artur Schnabel. On Oct. 31, 1943, he made his debut at N.Y.’s Town Hall. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1945. After World War II, he made tours all over the world. In 1979 he represented the U.S. in the first visit of an American pianist to the People’s Republic of China since the Cultural Revolution. He taught at the Peabody Cons, in Baltimore from 1960 to 1987; also gave master classes at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Conn, (from 1969).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire