Nero plans holiday gift for Stranahan audience
Pianist Peter Nero is so famous he needs no introduction.
But we’re going to do it anyway, because he is such an interesting, vital man, and because he’ll return to Toledo for an 8 p.m. Saturday concert with the Toledo Symphony Pops in the Stranahan Theater.
At 74, Nero is full steam ahead in a performing and recording career that shows no signs of winding down.
“I see no difference between who I am now and who I was 40 years ago,” he said this week from his suburban Philadelphia home. “I don’t think I’ll ever pack it in.”
A Steinway Artist for half a century, he has recorded nearly 70 albums, won two Grammy Awards, and been nominated many more times.
Not merely an interpreter of other composers’ works — from classical to popular and jazz — Nero is also a composer, with an entire musical score, “Sunday in New York,” to his credit. His most recent honorary doctorate came from Drexel University.
In 1999 he received the Pennsylvania Distinguished Arts Award, joining a group that includes Marian Anderson, James Michener, Andrew Wyeth, and Riccardo Muti.
But to Nero, a good-humored raconteur, perhaps the greatest accolade came in a review from a Palm Beach, Fla., newspaper. “They said I played with the energy of a 20-year-old rock ‘n’ roll drummer,” he said. You could feel the smile over the phone.
Few days go by without serious practice: etudes, exercises, classical pieces. And, notes Nero, “I have no arthritis problems.”
As a prime example of the happy result of pursuing your bliss, Nero maintains a punishing performance schedule with the Philadelphia Pops series in the Kimmel Center.
“The Philly Pops is growing so quickly I have no time to go anywhere,” Nero said. “The schedule also inhibits my writing.”
A well-known arranger, Nero says, “When I write for piano and orchestra, there is no piano line. My part is improvisation — a curious combination of written music and my own ideas.”
This weekend, with his steady duo — bassist Mike Barnett and drummer George Mazzeo — Nero will perform a holiday-flavored program with the full symphony in the first half.
“They have played with me for so many years that, as soon as we go into tempo, they run the show,” he says. “The second half is my holiday gift to the audience, a collection of favorites from over the years,” he notes.
Talk about gifts, this Brooklyn native showed exceptional talent and dedication early on. After studying for seven years, he was accepted into the High School of Music and Art at age 14 and later won a scholarship to the Juilliard School. “It was 31 stops on the subway,” Nero recalls of the daily commute.
In those years, he was all about classical music. He revered the dramatic performance style of Vladimir Horowitz — the famed pianist became a fan of Nero’s after hearing him perform — but also began to listen to jazz musicians including George Shearing and Billy Taylor.
“I never heard Art Tatum live,” Nero says of the Toledo native who also started his musical life in classical studies until he encountered the allure of jazz.
But once introduced to the complexity and stunning technique of the legendary jazz keyboardist, Nero realized he had encountered a player he could not imitate. “I cried when I realized I could not pick off Tatum. His timing was impeccable,” he recalls.
Today, Nero is interested in preserving the homestead of the Toledo pianist, who died in 1956.
“I want to get a consortium of musicians to buy the property and turn it into a settlement school,” he said. Nero is known as an activist supporter of school music programs and arts centers, as well as a patron of medical research.
Peter Nero will perform with his duo and the Toledo Symphony at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Stranahan Theater. Tickets are $21 to $60 at 419-246-8000 or www.toledosymphony.com.
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Contact Sally Vallongo at svallongo@theblade.com.
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