Lee Pattison
Encyclopedia
Lee Pattison was a noted American pianist, composer, arranger, opera director, and teacher. From about 1919 until 1931 he was a member of the popular two-piano team of Guy Maier
Guy Maier
Guy Maier was a noted American pianist, composer, arranger, teacher, and writer. From about 1919 to 1931, he was a member of the popular two-piano team of Maier and Pattison....

 and Lee Pattison. Lee Pattison Recital Hall at Scripps College
Scripps College
Scripps College is a progressive liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California, United States. It is a member of the Claremont Colleges. Scripps ranks 3rd for the nation's best women's college, ahead of Barnard College, Mount Holyoke College, and Bryn Mawr College at 23rd on the list for...

 in Claremont, California
Claremont, California
Claremont is a small affluent college town in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population as of the 2010 census is 34,926. Claremont is known for its seven higher-education institutions, its...

, is named for him.

Early life

Lee (Marion) Pattison was born in Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, on July 22, 1890. His father, Joseph Marion Pattison, was a public school teacher, and his mother, Mary Alice McVicker, a private music teacher. While he was still a boy, his family moved to Iowa. He studied piano and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music
New England Conservatory of Music
The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...

 in Boston, where his principal piano teacher was Carl Baermann (1839–1913), a friend and pupil of Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...

. Following graduation in 1910, he became a member of the New England faculty. Pattison met Guy Maier
Guy Maier
Guy Maier was a noted American pianist, composer, arranger, teacher, and writer. From about 1919 to 1931, he was a member of the popular two-piano team of Maier and Pattison....

, who was then a student at the New England Conservatory. Following Maier’s graduation in 1913, Maier and Pattison left together for Europe, where they hoped to become pupils of Harold Bauer
Harold Bauer
Harold Bauer was a noted pianist who began his musical career as a violinist.Harold Bauer was born in London; his father was a German violinist and his mother was English. He took up the study of the violin under the direction of his father and Adolf Pollitzer. He made his debut as a violinist in...

 (1873–1951), Josef Hofmann (1876–1957), or Arthur Schnabel
Arthur Schnabel
For the Austrian composer, see Artur Schnabel.Arthur Schnabel is a German judoka.He won a bronze medal in the Open division at the 1984 Summer Olympics.-External links:*...

 (1882–1951), all eminent pianists of the time. They found that Bauer was away and Hofmann took no pupils, but Schnabel was willing to teach them. So they went to Berlin, where Schnabel coached them for about a year. Maier and Pattison returned to Boston in 1914.

Maier and Pattison

After Maier and Pattison heard a two-piano performance by Harold Bauer
Harold Bauer
Harold Bauer was a noted pianist who began his musical career as a violinist.Harold Bauer was born in London; his father was a German violinist and his mother was English. He took up the study of the violin under the direction of his father and Adolf Pollitzer. He made his debut as a violinist in...

 (1873–1951) and Ossip Gabrilowitsch
Ossip Gabrilowitsch
Ossip Gabrilowitsch was a Russian-born American pianist, conductor and composer.- Biography :...

 (1878–1936), they began to play together. When the United States entered World War I, Pattison joined the infantry, and Maier volunteered for the entertainment service of the YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...

. In France, the two gave recitals for American troops. After the armistice, they gave a recital in Paris that was attended by President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...

 and French Premier Georges Clemenceau
Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman, physician and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. For nearly the final year of World War I he led France, and was one of the major voices behind the Treaty of Versailles at the...

.
Playing classic works from the two-piano repertory in addition to their own arrangements of the works of great composers, Maier and Pattison traveled widely through the United States and Europe during the 1920s. In 1922, they joined Leopold Godowsky
Leopold Godowsky
Leopold Godowsky was a famed Polish American pianist, composer, and teacher. One of the most highly regarded performers of his time, he became known for his theories concerning the application of relaxed weight and economy of motion in piano playing, principles later propagated by Godowsky's...

 (1870–1938) in the final number of a concert in Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

, where they played Godowsky’s three-piano contrapuntal paraphrase of Carl Maria von Weber’s Invitation to the Dance. Godowsky dedicated the work to Maier and Pattison. In 1928, they gave the Carnegie Hall premiere of Mozart’s Andante and Variations, K. 501, a work composed in 1786 but never before played in the New York hall. As their reputation grew, they became known as “The Piano Twins.” In 1931, they announced a “friendly split” and embarked on a farewell tour of the United States. Time magazine said they were “as difficult to disscociate as Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, liver & bacon or the Cherry Sisters.” Both were “excellent musicians,” Time said, but Maier was “the better showman. . . . Pattison’s contribution is just as important but he makes it more quietly, focuses more on his piano.”

Later Concert Career

In the early 1930s, Pattison performed as a soloist and also with the eminent violinist Jacques Gordon (1897–1948) and his Gordon String Quartet. In March, 1937, Maier and Pattison joined in a reunion concert on the stage of the WPA
WPA
- Agencies and organizations :*World Pool-Billiard Association*World Psychiatric Association- United States :*Washington Project for the Arts*Women's Prison Association...

 Theatre of Music in New York.

Original Compositions and Arrangements

Pattison published original compositions and arrangements of classic works for piano, two pianos, solo voice, and choral groups. He spent several summers in composition at Warm Springs, Georgia. He also taught at Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...

 and Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

.

American Lyric Theatre and Metropolitan Opera

He was also General Director of the American Lyric Theatre in New York. He served as manager of the spring 1937 season of the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

.

Scripps College

In 1941 he became Professor of Music at Scripps College
Scripps College
Scripps College is a progressive liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California, United States. It is a member of the Claremont Colleges. Scripps ranks 3rd for the nation's best women's college, ahead of Barnard College, Mount Holyoke College, and Bryn Mawr College at 23rd on the list for...

in Claremont, California. He held the position until his retirement in 1962, at which time he became professor emeritus. As evidence of the affection and respect in which he was held at Scripps, the trustees named the Lee Pattison Recital Hall in his honor.

Private Teaching

Pattison was a highly admired private teacher of piano. His pupils included the emiment pianist, John Browning (1933–2003).

Family Life

Lee Pattison married the English-born Gladys Cousins on July 6, 1920. They were the parents of three daughters, Diana (1922–2011), Patricia (1924–27), and Valerie (1930–77).
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK