LEWISTON — Renowned concert pianist Frank Glazer returns to the Franco-American Heritage Center in Lewiston on Saturday, Nov. 20, to present a program of compositions by Handel, Schubert, von Weber, Griffes, Hovhaness, and Liszt. The second program in this Piano Series season, this recital begins at 7:30 p.m.

At 95, the pianist is still learning.

“Catching up with Glazer is like reading the pages of a history book,” wrote Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Bill Glauber upon interviewing the pianist, who recently returned to perform in his hometown. “The only difference is that with Glazer, the story is still unfolding.”

Indeed, at age 95, the pianist is still learning, still perfecting his skills at the keyboard. “I’ve worked all my life to get to this point,” he recounted to Glauber. “Now is not the time to quit!”

Still enthralled by the works of great composers, he practices for several hours each day, often studying works for the first time in his long career. A week before his piano series recital, he will perform for the first time Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Bates-Bowdoin Orchestras. “I have over 40 concerti in my repertoire,” he recalls with glee, “but that wasn’t one of them!”

Glazer started playing his family’s upright piano at age 4. Despite an obvious talent for the instrument, he disliked his early teacher and even considered switching careers and becoming a minor-league baseball player. Fortunately, a new teacher, Jacob Moerschel, set him on the right track, and Glazer soon developed a reputation for his piano artistry.

For his graduation from junior high school, he performed Mendelssohn’s G minor piano concerto with orchestra. He and three brothers — his six brothers also played musical instruments – formed a dance band, and while in high school, he performed in local vaudeville productions, sometimes playing Gershwin’s then-new Rhapsody in Blue several times a week.

When Glazer was 17, appreciative local patrons sponsored his travel to Berlin to continue his studies with Artur Schnabel, the legendary Beethoven and Schubert interpreter. While there, he met Arnold Schoenberg, with whom he subsequently had lessons in counterpoint. Back in the United States, in 1936, at the age of 21, he made his recital debut at New York’s Town Hall, followed three years later by his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under another music legend, Serge Koussevitzky.

“…one of the most compelling musical personalities of our day”

Admired by audiences on several continents over the many years, Frank Glazer has received numerous accolades as solo performer, chamber music collaborator, soloist with symphony orchestras, and recording artist. Praised for the warmth of his interpretations, as well as for his mastery of a broad repertoire and brilliant technique, he remains remarkably young in spirit and manner.

When Glazer returned to perform in Iceland in May 2009, 50 years after his first appearances in that island nation, a reviewer wrote that he was “unforgettable …an artist who has incredibly much to share,” and concluded, “In that respect, it is sorrowful how few are his equals.”

He plays on, long after many others would have stopped.

World War II brought a pause in his career – he served as an interpreter and investigator in the European theater following the D-Day invasion – and he later embarked on a self-imposed period of study of piano-playing technique, which he now credits for having enabled him to have such a long career. “If I hadn’t taken time out to stop playing and figure out how I could make the sounds I wanted to make in the most efficient way, I wouldn’t still be playing the way I am today,” Glazer remarks.

He then resumed performing and teaching, making his Carnegie Hall debut in 1949. During this time he also composed several songs for piano and voice, including one based on Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”

In 1980, after having spent 15 years on the artist faculty of the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, Glazer and his late wife, Ruth, moved to Maine, where he became artist-in-residence and lecturer in music at Bates College. The couple had been spending summers in Maine for many years and in 1976, founded the Saco River Festival.

He considers that the performer’s task is decoding a message left by the great composers, allowing it to reach the souls of the audience. The performer should “get out of the way” and let the audience be moved by the message.

Audiences at a Frank Glazer recital marvel at how little effort he uses to achieve the sounds he wants to make, even during very difficult and stormy passages. He is so efficient at playing the notes that often his fingers appear to move hardly at all. With this artist, it’s “all about the music,” not about the performer.

Others call him “indefatigable.”

Glazer “inaugurated” the Franco Center’s Steinway concert grand piano in a March 2006 performance with the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra, playing both a Mozart and a Beethoven concerto. (He repeated the program the following day in Topsham.) Since then, at the Franco Center, he presented a program by all-French composers for the 2006 FrancoFun Festival and has appeared there during each Piano Series season.

His only concession to age is that he may be traveling less – although during the past year he has performed and given master classes in Austria, California, North Carolina and New York, as well as returning to his hometown in Wisconsin.

What: Piano Series Recital by Frank Glazer

When: Saturday, November 20, 2010, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Franco-American Heritage Center

46 Cedar Street, Lewiston

Tickets: Adults $16 Seniors $14

Students admitted at no charge.

All seats reserved. Box Office (207) 689-2000. Purchase on-line: www.francoamericanheritage.org.