Legendary Pianist

Legendary American pianist Earl Wild displayed incredible musical talent his entire life. He was reading music at age six and studying with Selmar Janson at 12, before being placed into an accelerated program for gifted young people at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Tech.

By the time he was a teenager, he was playing in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. By 19 he was a confident composer and had many arrangements performed on local radio.

A number of milestones quickly followed. In 1942, he became the first person to perform a piano recital on US television. He was subsequently invited to be the soloist in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with conductor Arturo Toscanini.

Wild served as a musician in the US Navy during World War II and played several recitals at the White House during the war years. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt frequently requested he accompanies her to speaking engagements and performs the national anthem before her speeches.

After the war, Wild became a staff pianist, conductor and composer at ABC until 1968. During his tenancy, he conducted and performed many of his own compositions, including Easter Ontario — the first major musical work subsidized by a television network.

That wouldn’t be Wild’s final premiere. He performed the Western premiere of  Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Trio in E Minor, was the soloist in the premiere of Paul Creston’s Piano Concerto and performed the premiere of Marvin David Levy’s Piano Concerto.

Wild was in incredible demand throughout his career. He is the only musician to be requested to perform for six consecutive US presidents. He has played or conducted in almost every orchestra and concert hall across the world and collaborated with some of the other biggest names in music.

On top of everything, Wild was a popular and devoted teacher. he was a teacher at many schools, including the Juilliard School of Music, Penn State University, the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music.