Arthur Loesser: Pianist, teacher, critic, author

Arthur Loesser was born August 26, 1894, in New York City. He had a long and distinguished career as a concert pianist, teacher, music critic, and author. For most of his life, Loesser resided in Cleveland, Ohio where he taught piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1926 until his death in January of 1969. As a concert pianist, he was highly respected for his performances of J. S. Bach and was deeply involved in the revival of obscure piano works. Loesser performed throughout the world, including numerous appearances in New York City, Cleveland, Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Detroit, Toronto, and Vancouver. He was a frequent soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra and performed with other leading orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Minneapolis Symphony, the New South Wales Orchestra in Australia, and the Nippon Philharmonic in Japan. Loesser was active as a collaborative pianist and toured with many established artists of his time, including Madam Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Mischa Elman, and Maud Powell.;Loesser was also a prolific writer who served in many capacities. He was music critic and editor for the Cleveland Press from 1937-1956. From 1936-1941 he also served as the program annotator for the Cleveland Orchestra. As an author, he wrote two notable books, Humor in American Song and Men, Women, and Pianos: A Social History, the latter of which has become an important document regarding the social history of the piano.;The treatise is divided into five sections which will examine his unique contribution as a pianist, teacher, critic, and author. Appendix A contains a discography of Loesser's commercially released recordings. Appendix B lists solo recital repertoire which Loesser performed throughout his career, attesting to his versatile command of the piano repertoire.;The majority of research for this treatise was obtained through the Arthur Loesser Collection in the International Piano Archives at Maryland on the campus of the University of Maryland-College Park. This collection contains many of Loesser's writings, correspondence, recital programs, biographical articles, and memorabilia. Information was also obtained from interviews with former pupils, friends and Loesser's daughter, Anne Hollander.