Zeisler, Fannie Bloomfield (1863–1927)

American concert pianist. Born Fannie Blumenfeld on July 16, 1863, in Bielitz, Autrian Silesia; died on August20, 1927, in Chicago, Illinois; only daughter and youngest of three children of Solomon Blumenfeld (a merchant) and Bertha (Jaeger) Blumenfeld (an editor of her husband's publications); studied at home (by one account attended public schools and the Dearborn Seminary, Chicago); studied with Bernhard Ziehn and Theodor Leschetizky; married Sigmund Zeisler (a lawyer), on October 18, 1885; children: Leonard (b. 1886); Paul (b. 1897); Ernest (b. 1899).

The youngest of three children and only daughter of Jewish parents, pianist Fannie Blumenfeld (anglicized to Bloomfield in 1883) was born in Bielitz, Austrian Silesia, in 1863, and emigrated to America with her family in 1866. For several years, the family lived in Appleton, Wisconsin, then settled in Chicago, where Solomon Blumenfeld established a dry goods business. Fannie's first piano teacher was her brother Maurice (who went on to become a distinguished philologist and professor of Sanskrit at Johns Hopkins University). She later studied with Bernhard Ziehn, from whom she learned the fundamentals of music, and with the conductor and impresario Carl Wolfsohn, who came to Chicago in 1873. On February 26, 1875, at age 11, she made her debut at a Beethoven Society concert, performing Beethoven's F-major Andante. Over the next three years, she continued to perform locally under Wolfsohn's management.

In 1877, the acclaimed Russian pianist Annette Essipova was touring in Chicago and heard Fannie perform. Impressed, Essipova encouraged Fannie to study with her own mentor, the master teacher Theodor Leschetizky. Fannie subsequently spent five years working with Leschetizky in Vienna, during which she also performed several public concerts. She returned to Chicago in 1883, performing with the Beethoven Society on January 11, 1884. Following a full concert at Chicago's Hershey Hall that April, she made her New York debut on January 30, 1885, under the direction of Frank Van der Stucken. With her reputation growing, Fannie also embarked on a teaching career, joining the faculty of Chicago's School of Lyric and Dramatic Art.

On October 18, 1885, Fannie married Sigmund Zeisler, an up and coming young Chicago attorney who later gained prominence as the defender of the Chicago anarchists following the Haymarket Riot. The Zeislers, who had three sons, established something of a cultural salon in the city, hosting a reception at their home on the last Wednesday evening of each month to which they invited many in Chicago's cultural and liberal community.

By the 1890s, Fannie was at the front rank of the world's concert pianists, acclaimed for her fiery temperament and minutely developed technique. She continued to concertize in Europe and America over the next 20 years, carefully arranging her schedule around her family and her students. Beginning in the fall of 1893, she made six European tours that included concerts in Germany, England, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, and Paris. Her American tours, often involving long train rides and difficult connections, included appearances with orchestras in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, and Minneapolis.

Two Chicago concerts dominate Zeisler's later career: the first, at Orchestra Hall on February 3, 1920, included three concertos, by Mozart, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky, and the scherzo of the Litolff concerto; the second, on February 25, 1925, honoring 50 years of concertizing, included concertos of Chopin and Schumann in which she was accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Frederick Stock. The performance also included the Beethoven andante she had played at her very first concert in 1875. Sadly, the latter performance turned out to be her farewell appearance. In the fall of 1926, Zeisler began suffering from a heart ailment and died the following summer, age 64.

sources:

James, Edward T., ed. Notable American Women, 1607–1950. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1971.

Krummel, D.W. "Zeisler [née Blumenfeld, Bloomfield], Fannie," in H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie, eds., New Grove Dictionary of American Music. Vol. 4, p. 592.

McHenry, Robert, ed. Famous American Women. NY: Dover, 1983.

Schonberg, Harold C. The Great Pianists. Rev. ed. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1987.

Slonimsky, Nicolas, ed. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. 8th ed. NY: Schirmer, 1992.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts