Piero Weiss (January 26, 1928 – October 2, 2011) was an Italian-American

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

and

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

. Born in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

, his mother was a symphony violinist and the niece of novelist

Italo Svevo Aron Hector Schmitz (19 December 186113 September 1928), better known by the pseudonym Italo Svevo (), was an Italian and Austro-Hungarian writer, businessman, novelist, playwright, and short story writer. A close friend of Irish novelist and ...

. In 1938, at the age of 10, he fled

Fascist Italy Fascist Italy () is a term which is used in historiography to describe the Kingdom of Italy between 1922 and 1943, when Benito Mussolini and the National Fascist Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictatorship. Th ...

with his family, ending up in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1940. In New York, he studied piano with

Isabella Vengerova Isabelle Vengerova (; 7 February 1956) was a Russian, later American, pianist and music teacher. She was born Izabella Afanasyevna Vengerova (Изабелла Афанасьевна Венгерова) in Minsk (now in Belarus) in the family of ...

and

Rudolf Serkin Rudolf Serkin (28 March 1903 – 8 May 1991) was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century. Early life, childhood debut, and education Serkin was born in ...

, music theory and composition with

Karl Weigl Karl Ignaz Weigl (6 February 1881 – 11 August 1949) was a History of the Jews in Austria, Jewish Austrian composer and pianist, who later became a Naturalization, naturalized American citizen in 1943. Biography Weigl was born in Vienna, ...

, and chamber music with

Adolf Busch Adolf Georg Wilhelm Busch (8 August 1891 – 9 June 1952) was a German-Swiss violinist, conductor, and composer. Life and career Busch was born in Siegen in Westphalia. He studied at the Cologne Conservatory with Willy Hess and Bram Eldering. ...

. In 1944, at the age of 16, he began his career as a concert pianist. He performed throughout the United States and Europe up into the 1960s, and also performed for radio broadcasts. He recorded works by Debussy. Ravel, Schubert, and Schumann.

Academia

Although he had a substantial career as a pianist, Weiss is chiefly remembered for his work as a scholar and college professor. A specialist in the history of Italian opera, the last of his four books was dedicated to a detailed history of 18th-century Italian opera and is scheduled for release by the Turin publishing house EDT in 2012. He authored three other books, including a widely used college text book, ''Music in the Western World: A History in Documents'' (with co-author

Richard Taruskin Richard Filler Taruskin (April 2, 1945 – July 1, 2022) was an American musicologist and music critic who was among the leading and most prominent music historians of his generation. The breadth of his scrutiny into source material as well as ...

). Weiss earned a B.A. in Music from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1950 and a Ph.D. in musicology from Columbia in 1970. He taught on the music faculty at Columbia from 1964 to 1985. He then joined the faculty of the

Peabody Conservatory The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a private music and dance conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1857, it became affiliated with Johns Hopkins in 1977. History Philanthropist and ...

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

, where he founded the music history department in the Fall of 1985. He remained at Peabody until his death 26 years later. He also concurrently taught piano performance at the

Curtis Institute The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, a Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on a full scholarshi ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Family

He died in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

in 2011, at the age of 83, due to complications of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

. Weiss is survived by Carole Severson Weiss (wife), Maria Leandri (daughter), Antonio Weiss (son), Carlo Weiss (brother), and six grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Piero 1928 births 2011 deaths American musicologists 20th-century American pianists American male pianists 20th-century American male musicians Italian emigrants to the United States Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty