13 Facts About Jorge Bolet

Jorge Bolet was a Cuban-born American concert pianist, conductor and teacher.

Jorge Bolet's teachers included Leopold Godowsky, Josef Hofmann, David Saperton, Moriz Rosenthal and Fritz Reiner.

Jorge Bolet was sent to Japan as part of the Army of Occupation.

Jorge Bolet made his first recordings for the Boston label which published recital recordings in 1952.

Jorge Bolet recorded the Second Piano Concerto of Sergei Prokofiev with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on the Remington label.

Jorge Bolet recorded the Four Scherzos of Frederic Chopin on Remington.

Jorge Bolet provided the piano soundtrack for the 1960 biopic Song Without End, which starred Dirk Bogarde as the legendary 19th-century piano virtuoso Franz Liszt.

From 1968 to 1977, Jorge Bolet was Professor of Music at Indiana University, where he taught alongside his childhood friends Abbey Simon and Sidney Foster.

In 1977, Jorge Bolet became Head of Piano at the Curtis Institute of Music, succeeding Rudolf Serkin, but he resigned from this post to concentrate on his performing career.

Jorge Bolet's health began to decline in 1988 and, in 1989, he underwent a brain operation from which he never fully recovered.

Jorge Bolet died from heart failure in October 1990, at his home in Mountain View, California.

Jorge Bolet is particularly well remembered for his performances and recordings of large-scale Romantic music, particularly works by Franz Liszt, Cesar Franck, and Frederic Chopin.

Jorge Bolet specialised in piano transcriptions and unusual repertoire, including the fiendishly difficult works of Godowsky, many of which Bolet had studied with the composer himself.