This is the tale of a famous pianista who lived through the music business’s tumultuous decades and who went on to inspire a new generation of composers, songwriters, performers, directors, and musicians.
Liberace, born in 1875 in the Bronx, New York, and raised in the United States, was an avant-garde musician, pianist, composer, and arranger.
The musician was born in Brooklyn to a well-to-do family and his father had moved the family to Harlem.
His father, who had previously worked as a violinist, was the only member of the family with a musical background.
Liberacy spent much of his youth in a Brooklyn mansion where his parents had taught him the piano.
When he was 12, he attended a summer school in Manhattan, where he received an internship at the legendary music school at Columbia University.
He went on in his career to compose music for both classical and jazz bands, including the likes of Irving Berlin, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk.
When his career took off, Liberace began a long period of creative experimentation and experimentation with his music.
In his twenties, he moved to Paris to work with composers.
At the age of 20, he recorded a jazz album, called “My Way,” with pianist André Breton.
He returned to Harlem, where his mother worked as an artist at the Harlem Playhouse, and he was accepted to Columbia University in 1922.
In 1922, Liberacy enrolled in the renowned Columbia Music School.
He continued to perform regularly, including in New York City, in the West Village, and in the New York Opera House.
By the early 1930s, he had begun to make a name for himself as an arranger, pianister, and singer.
He toured extensively throughout Europe and America, recording numerous albums and touring with the likes in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
He was also active in public service.
He served as a member of Congress from 1940 to 1944, and was appointed U.S. ambassador to Germany in 1945.
He died in Harlem, New Jersey, in 1945 at the age 78.
