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6 unusual facts about Eugene List


California Chamber Symphony

• A “Monster Concert,” produced in collaboration with Eugene List, in which 12 Steinway pianos and 36 pianists were brought onstage to perform pieces by Louis M. Gottschalk and others;

Eugene List

He spent his formative years in Los Angeles, where his father Louis List (originally Lisnitzer) was a language teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District and his mother, Rose, a pharmacist.

In 1929, at the age of 12, he performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Artur Rodziński, playing Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto.

He was sent to the Paris suburb of Chatou, where he joined a collection of GI talent, including Mickey Rooney, violinist Stuart Canin, modern dancer José Limón, Bobby Breen and Josh Logan.

Soon they learned the occasion was to play for President Harry S. Truman, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill, including their large entourage at the Big Three conference.

Louis Lisnitzer had immigrated to America from Odessa, Russia and settled in Philadelphia, where he met and married Rose, whose family had also come from the same region.



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