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Award-winning pianist Leonard Pennario dies at 83
2008-06-28
LOS ANGELES - Leonard Pennario, a Grammy-winning pianist and best-selling classical recording artist, has died. He was 83. Pennario died Friday at his home in San Diego of complications from Parkinson's disease, said his biographer, Mary Kunz Goldman. Pennario won a Grammy in the 1960s for his work with violinist Jascha Heifetz and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. He was a passionate performer who enjoyed playing in front of audiences, said Kunz Goldman. "'You have to play for the people; you have to play for an audience,'" she recalled Pennario saying. "'You can't just go into the studio and make records, you know?'" Born in Buffalo on July 9, 1924, Pennario was 10 when he and his family moved to Los Angeles. At age 12, he learned the Grieg Concerto in a week so he could perform it from memory with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Pennario never attended a music conservatory but at 19 made his debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic. He made more than 40 recordings for the Capitol record label between 1950 and 1960. He went on to make more than 20 more for other labels.
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