Liberace

When Liberace was just seven years old, he memorized the full 17-page score of Mendelssohn’s“Midsummer Night’s Dream” in one day. No matter your opinion of Liberace’s ostentatious and flamboyant style, his talent on the piano is unarguable. He learned the entertainment business as a teenager playing honky tonks and bars, moving after high school graduation to New York City, “the city that never sleeps.” He found moderate success there, but soon moved to California, staying only a year before returning to The Big Apple. To stand out in an extremely competitive market, Liberace practiced 12 hours a day and originated his unique style, combining the classic works, shortened to appeal to a mass audience, with the popular tunes of the day. It was at this time, in the early 1940s, that he plopped the infamous candelabra on his grand piano. The lavish, over-the-top costumes would come later. Soon, Las Vegas beckoned and Liberace did not look the other way. From 1945 until the end of his life in 1987, Liberace called Las Vegas home—along with his mulitple other homes, all of which he decorated in the most lavish (some would say completely kitsch) way imaginable. Liberace was a force to be reckoned with, a very talented and original artist.