Fleisher Scholar Channels Lessons from the Legend

A crowd sitting on the edge of their seats. A concert hall full of energy and motion. Conveying a powerful, universal emotion. These are the thrills that make the hard work worth it, according to pianist Dora Chen.

As a Leon Fleisher Studio Scholar at the Peabody Institute, Chen says she practices at least four hours each day, but sometimes six or seven hours when she is tackling the works of her favorite composers, Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt.

“Liszt is known for being very virtuosic and having a lot of very technically difficult passages, and even though it’s very hard and takes a lot of practice, when you get on stage and you can play it, it has this electrifying feeling,” Chen says. “And when you feel like the audience had a great response to it, it’s so fulfilling.”

“At Peabody, I think I’ve been able to grow a lot, especially in my major piano lessons. I have a great teacher who always supports me, and it helps me just get on stage and be able to express music for people, which is what I love to do,” she says.

Chen currently studies with renowned pianist and Professor of Piano Steven Spooner, but she adds that her teachers at the Peabody Institute still quote from lessons learned from legendary pianist and conductor, Leon Fleisher, who taught there for 60 years before passing away in 2020.

Famous for his interpretations of works by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven, Fleisher was the first American to win the prestigious Queen Elizabeth competition in Belgium in 1952 at the age of 24. He later battled a neurological disorder, focal dystonia, from which he lost control of his right hand for 30 years and adapted to a left-hand repertoire during that time.

“Eventually when his feeling was restored in his right hand, he went back to record new albums and work with more conductors, and he kept teaching at Peabody throughout all of this. That really shows his dedication to not only his craft, but also to passing down his knowledge and his wisdom to his students,” Chen says. “I’ve spoken to students of his students, and he was a real inspiration.”

“As a Leon Fleischer Studio Scholarship recipient, I’m very honored, of course, to hold this title,” she says. “And I’m very grateful, of course, to the donors. Going to school with a lot of the financial worries covered just really allows me to focus on practicing.”

Baltimore philanthropists Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker, who were close friends with Fleisher, established the Leon Fleisher Studio Scholarship Fund in 2014, initially for students studying directly with Fleisher. They also created the Leon Fleisher Scholars Fund in 2009 to celebrate Fleisher’s 50th anniversary teaching at Peabody.

Chen hopes to pay that generosity forward by not only perfecting her concert hall performances, but also by playing music in therapeutic settings to have broader impact.

“Music is a very universal experience. Everybody can relate to some sort of very human emotion, some human aspect of it, and research has already shown that music can have therapeutic aspects and be really beneficial in healthcare,” Chen says, “So I would love to somehow be able to really help people in what I play.”

“You don’t stop searching for meaning in your craft just because you feel like you’ve achieved something, or you won a competition, or you faced a major setback. Being a musician is a lifelong art,” she adds.