“Leon Bates thought maybe it was the coffee,” writes Peter Dobrin in Monday’s (10/22) Philadelphia Inquirer. “ ‘In the beginning, I didn’t even notice,’ … he said of the tremors in his hands. As a busy pianist, he explained, he would drink coffee to get through rehearsals and concerts.… But his balance and memory were giving him trouble, too, and what Bates thought was too much caffeine led to a diagnosis of Parkinson’s. The distinguished pianist—born and trained in Philadelphia, and a worldwide presence for decades—has announced that he is retiring from the concert stage. The Leon Bates concert long planned for Dec. 9 will now be a performance played for him rather than by him. The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Bates, and his longtime manager, Joanne Rile, have remade the program, and he will be serenaded in solo, vocal, and chamber works by many of his collaborators…. Bates, now 68, has had an enviable career of solo recitals and chamber music partnerships and of sharing the stage with the major orchestras of Cleveland, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and in Europe…. Though he won’t be playing in public anymore, Bates will continue to do master classes and teach.”
Posted October 25, 2018
