Hungerford, Bruce

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Hungerford, Bruce

Hungerford, Bruce, Australian pianist; b. Korumburra, Victoria, Nov. 24, 1922; d. in an automobile accident in N.Y, Jan. 26, 1977. He received his initial education in Melbourne. He studied piano with Ignaz Friedman in Sydney (1944), and later with Ernest Hutcheson at the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. (1945–7); took private lessons with Myra Hess in N.Y. (1948–58) and also with Carl Friedberg (1948–55). He gave his first piano recital in N.Y. in 1951, after which until 1965 he appeared under the name Leonard Hungerford. Apart from his virtuoso technique, he possessed an extraordinary mastery of dynamic gradations and self-consistent musical phraseology. He also gained recognition as a color photographer and archeologist, specializing in Egyptology; he recorded a 17-part audiovisual lecture entitled “The Heritage of Ancient Egypt” (1971).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire