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Home | Arts & Entertainment | Celebrities Liberace was born in West Allis, Wisconsin. His father, Salvatore Liberace was an Italian who played the French horn in the Milwaukee Philharmonic and his mother Frances Liberace was a Polish who played the piano. Two of his siblings also showed musical prowess. Thus, the whole family was quite musically talented. As a child, Walter Valentino Liberace used to watch and listen to his parents playing their instruments of choice, but he fell in love with pianos. All this was long before he played his famous mirrored or jewel encrusted pianos. A family friend visited the Liberace home and offered young Walter a scholarship to the College of Music in Wisconsin. Liberace happily accepted the scholarship and went on to study at the collage as well as privately with Florence Bettray Kelly, once considered a protégé of the legendary Moritz Rosenthal. At the tender age of 14, Liberace completed his classical training and made his solo debut at the Chicago Symphony. Subsequently, Liberace began playing pianos at some of the famous clubs in the country, including the Persian Room at the prestigious Plaza Hotel in New York City. He used his last name only at this point of time and carried his gold candelabra that became his trademark. After just seven years from the time he played in the Persian Room, Liberace returned a star and brought with him one of his infamous pianos. Hollywood came calling in the 1950s and Liberace began making movies. Soon after, Liberace was sought out for a television series that would later win him two Emmy awards. The show was a hit and was broadcast all over the world on both television and radio transmissions. While juggling his television commitment, Liberace continued touring, playing sold out performances in Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden. In the 1960s and 1970s, Liberace became a common picture dragging pianos all over the world, and playing capacity crowds in Europe and Australia. At this point of time, he started writing his autobiography and his famous cookbook, "Liberace Cooks". Liberace was a philanthropic to the core; he created the Liberace Foundation that supports the Performing and Creative Arts through scholarship programs. He won the Contemporary Keyboard Magazine "Pop Keyboard Artist of the Year" awards three times consecutively. He also started his own Las Vegas museum. In the 1980s, Liberace continued to enthrall audiences all over the world. He played the nominated songs flawlessly at the 1982 Academy Awards. He also traveled tirelessly, bringing fans at venues like Radio City Music Hall. Shortly before his 68th birthday, the King of Pianos passed away peacefully in his Palm Springs home. No one has filled his shoes or sat at his rhinestone encrusted pianos yet and, who knows if anyone ever will. Article Source: http://www.articlewheel.com
Emanuel Daffy is the webmaster for F pianos, the best place on the internet for information about pianos. For questions or comments about this article why not visit: www.azpianos.com/articles
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