Gary Graffman (October 14, 1928 – December 27, 2025) was an American classical pianist, piano professor, and music organizer.

Life
Graffman was born to Russian-Jewish parents. He began playing the piano at the age of three. In 1936, at the age of seven, he entered the Curtis Institute of Music as a piano student of Isabelle Vengerova. After graduating from the Curtis Institute, he made his debut in 1946 with conductor Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. By the age of 20, Graffman had a worldwide reputation as a classical pianist. In 1949, he won the prestigious Leventritt Competition. He continued his piano studies with Rudolf Serkin at the Marlboro Music Festival and also studied informally with Vladimir Horowitz.

Graffman enjoyed a successful career as a pianist. He performed with He played with many orchestras and performed internationally. For the next three decades, he toured extensively and recorded extensively, performing as a soloist and with orchestras around the globe. In 1964, he recorded Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic. He also made a benchmark recording of Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra in 1966; this recording was re-released on CD by Sony in 2006 as part of their "Great Performances" series.

Probably Graffman's best-known recording is his piano playing for the 1979 Woody Allen film *Manhattan*, in which he played George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, accompanied by the New York Philharmonic. Excerpts from the Philharmonic-Graffman version have been played countless times in television and film over the past quarter-century.

In 1977, he injured the ring finger of his right hand. Because of this After the injury, he began to redesign his fingering repertoire to avoid using the injured finger. Unfortunately, these changes to his playing aggravated the injury. Finally, in 1979, the injury forced him to completely abandon the use of his right hand. This setback led him to develop other activities and interests, such as writing, photography, and Oriental art. In 1980, he began working at the Curtis Institute, where his career had begun. In 1986, he assumed leadership of the Curtis Institute, became president in 1995, and held these positions until 2006. Graffman continued to teach piano at the Curtis Institute.

Recent research suggests that Graffman's finger injury may have been caused by focal dystonia, a neurological condition that results in the loss of function and uncontrollable bending of the finger. The pianist Leon Fleisher, a close friend of Graffman's, also suffered from this condition.
Shortly after joining the At the Curtis Institute, he published his memoirs under the title *I Really Should Be Practicing*.

In 1985, he gave the UK premiere of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Piano Concerto in C-sharp major for the Left Hand. Paul Wittgenstein had performed the work in the 1920s and played it many times, but it later disappeared from the repertoire.

Seven works for the Left Hand were written for Graffman. For example, in 1993 he gave the world premiere of Ned Rorem's Piano Concerto No. 4, written specifically for the Left Hand, and in 2001 he premiered Daron Hagen's concerto *Seven Last Words*. The American composer William Bolcom composed *Gaea*, a concerto for two pianos, the Left Hand, for Graffman and Leon Fleisher. Its first performance took place in Baltimore in April 1996. The concerto is structured so that it can be performed in various ways, either the Piano part alone with a reduced orchestra, or with both piano parts and two reduced orchestras that combine to form a full orchestra.

In recognition of his many years of service and his dedication to music, Graffman received honorary doctorates from the cities of Philadelphia and New York City, and he was awarded the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Arts Prize. In addition to his administrative duties, Graffman remained active as a piano teacher, piano coach, and chamber musician. His most renowned students included the piano virtuosos Lydia Artymiv, Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, and Haochen Zhang.

He died in December 2025 at the age of 97.

Gary Graffman plays Prokofiev Piano Concerto no. 4, op. 53 - video 1990

Master Class with Mr. Gary Graffman