Michel Block

Michel Block (January 12, 1937, Antwerp–March 4, 2003, Bloomington, Indiana) was born of French parents in Antwerp, Belgium. He was a renowned pianist and winner of the 1962 Leventritt Competition. As a child, he moved with his parents to Mexico, where his grandfather had settled in 1870. Block studied piano in that country and later at the Juilliard School in New York City.

In one of the most famous of all competition incidents, Block won the Arthur Rubinstein Award in Warsaw at the 1960 International Chopin Piano Competition. As a contestant in that year's competition, he failed to capture the top prize. What he did capture, however, was the attention and allegiance of one of the jurors, Arthur Rubinstein. The legendary Polish-American pianist created the Arthur Rubinstein Award then and there for Block, a dramatic gesture that said plainly and loudly that he believed Block should have been the winner. Two years later, Michel Block won the Leventritt Competition in New York, adding his name to the illustrious list of winners, among which Alexis Weissenberg, Van Cliburn, Eugene Istomin, etc.

Like most pianists of renown, Block appeared with the great orchestras and conductors in the United States and in Europe. Among them were the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam; and among the conductors, Georg Solti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Riccardo Muti, and Bernard Haitink.

In 1978, Block joined the music faculty of what is now known as the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington, and ceased pursuing his career as a pianist. In later years, he performed only rarely in public; when he did, his recitals were eagerly anticipated events. In 1996, The Pro Piano New York Recital Series was extremely honored to present Michel Block in New York for the first time in nearly fifteen years.

His playing was characterized by a rich singing tone, lyrical phrasing, transparent voicing, and wonderful dynamic control. Now widely considered to be one of the great pianists of the 20th century, and a favorite among cognoscenti, his peers and the public alike continue to regard him as a pianist's pianist. In 1997, Block retired from teaching and lived a quiet, uneventful, and happy life.

Block made numerous recordings (many of which are now out of print) for major labels, including EMI, Pathé Marconi, Pro-Piano and Deutsche Grammophon. He recorded music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Robert Schumann, Frédéric Chopin, J.S. Bach, Franz Schubert, Enrique Granados, Alexander Scriabin, and Isaac Albéniz (including his celebrated disc of the complete Iberia (Albéniz)).

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