It is with regret that I learn that Leon Bates, Philadelphia born and bred, has died. With his dual devotion to music and bodybuilding, Bates was a very interesting man, at the time he was making his name not at all fitting the image of what I imagine many people held of a typical concert pianist. Bates stood 6’ 4” and at his physical peak could bench press 300 pounds.
His repertoire was broad, ranging from the meat-and-potatoes classics to works by repertory American composers Edward MacDowell and George Gershwin to those of contemporary masters George Walker, William Bolcom, and Adolphus Hailstork; also, those of jazz pianist Chick Corea. Bates internalized the lessons of jazz in his performance of the classics. At the very least, he believed music should never be performed the same way twice. He also preferred to find his own way to the core of a piece, and when preparing for a concert, he shunned exposure to recorded interpretations by other pianists.
For as interesting as he was as a person, there was nothing flamboyant in his personality. When your interests already seem so wildly diverse and you excel at everything you do, there’s no need to make a big show of it. You just do what you do with precision and grace.
I had the good fortune to interview Bates for the Times of Trenton in 2016. Two years later, he retired from the concert stage at the age of 68, after a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. For a time, he thought maybe he had been drinking too much coffee.
Bates died on Friday. He was 76 years old.
R.I.P.
*****
Here’s a link to the article. Since everything is on the internet forever except for the stuff you want, I’m also including the text below.
https://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/2016/12/classical_music_new_addition_t.html
If you’re looking for the inspiration to stick to your New Year’s resolution, you need look no further than pianist Leon Bates. Bates, whose life has been enriched by both music and sports, is as disciplined as they come. The results are evident in a career that has been marked by unflagging energy and an unusual focus on physical fitness.
“It definitely helps with the stamina,” he says of his weight training. “To be able to play a piano concerto, with an orchestra, is a tremendous responsibility. It requires a lot of energy. Discipline is a thing that is extremely important. Any kind of an experience where you have a chance to demonstrate your discipline, you get results. You’re encouraged and you’re reinforced by the results that you get when you do things correctly.”
Bates will join the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey for its annual New Year’s Eve concert this Saturday night at the Trenton War Memorial. The orchestra’s music director, Daniel Spalding will conduct a program of buoyant classics, including works by Franz von Suppé, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Leonard Bernstein, and Johann Strauss II. Bates will be the soloist in George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”
“‘Rhapsody in Blue’ has had such favor with audiences I think, because it’s got recognizable melodies that are very enjoyable,” he says. “People, regardless of whether they know music or not, can identify with it. As far as my association with the piece, I try to keep it fresh by injecting little aspects of improvisation here and there. Gershwin had that particular quality of being able to blend elements of jazz, elements of music from the ‘20s, with classical literature. It’s a winning combination which has worked very well for him.”
Bates’ dynamic career has included performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Boston, Detroit and San Francisco. He has toured the United States with the Boston Pops under Keith Lockhart and the Orchestra of France under Lorin Maazel. He has appeared with leading orchestras and at prestigious music festivals around the world.
“When I got involved with weight training, I found that there was a very, very direct corollary between being able to do sets and reps in the gym, trying to train a specific muscle and finding that there was a great deal of discipline involved in doing the activity correctly, with the proper technique, and what I am saying about music, being able to practice an idea over and over until you get that right, and having the stamina and fortitude to do that.”
A native of Philadelphia, he understands just how fortunate he was as a child and teenager to have supportive and nurturing mentors in his life, starting with his parents, who were extraordinary people of limited financial means. His father drove a forklift for Sears, Roebuck & Co., and his mother was a homemaker. Yet they saw to it that Bates never wanted for a musical education.
“My mother was very attentive to me, and as she saw me gravitate towards pianos, she took the initiative to start me with lessons when I was about six,” Bates says. “From the very beginning, I was always ambitious about wanting to be able to play music. I played on a recital for the first time when I was about seven years-old, and I was hooked.” His parents bought him his first piano, which he had until he was 15, and later, a small grand piano to help him prepare for his career as a concert musician.
He is also thankful for his three influential teachers. Cristofor Sinjani taught him privately at his Germantown studio for six years. (“He was a very good role model,” Bates says. “He taught me more than how to play the piano; he taught me how to be a good musician.”) For five years, he studied with Irene Beck at the Settlement Music School. (“She had great aspirations for me to become a concert pianist, which was what I wanted to do since I was 12 or 13.”) He went on to major in Piano Performance at Temple University with the distinguished pedagogue Natalie Hinderas. (“She was really an outstanding performer as well as a very fine teacher.”)
Bates himself has made it a point to share something of his musical good fortune, through conducting master classes with young musicians and by playing for elementary, middle, and high school students. “I think it’s really important for young people to be exposed to these kinds of things, on as many different levels, and through as many different opportunities as possible. You never know what kind of door it will open to them down the road.”
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