Marian Filar (pianist)

Filar died in Wyncote, Pennsylvania on July 10, 2012, aged 94.

In 2002, he co-authored a book about his life during and after World War II entitled From Buchenwald to Carnegie Hall.

He debuted in Carnegie Hall on January 1, 1952. Filar subsequently continued his career as a concert pianist all over the United States and South America as well as in Europe, while teaching at the Settlement School of Music in Philadelphia from 1953 to 1958. He was appointed to the chair at the Temple University School of Music piano department in 1958. Prof. Filar retired from teaching at Temple University in 1988 though he remained an Emeritus Professor in the Boyer School of Music and Dance. In 1992 he went to Poland where he played with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra once again.

He arrived in the United States in 1950, and lived there since. His American debut was at the Chautauqua Amphitheater where he played Chopin’s Concerto in F Minor and received sensational critiques. Invited to join the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Eugene Ormandy he performed regularly in Philadelphia with the Orchestra. In 1951, Filar recorded renditions of six nocturnes, Chopin’s Sonata in B Minor, for the now-defunct Colosseum Record Co. in New York City. He made a second recording of 4 preludes by Karol Szymanowski and Etude No 3 in B flat Minor Opus 3, as well as Franciszek Brzezinski’s Theme with Variations.

While playing recitals in Frankfurt, Germany for the Allied Forces, he went to Wiesbaden, Germany where he sought advice from the renowned German pianist, Walter Gieseking who told him not to quit piano. Filar studied with Gieseking for five years and toured all over Europe playing recitals and concerts. During this period (1945–50) he also performed very frequently on German and other European radio programs.

Marian Filar (December 17, 1917 – July 10, 2012) was a Polish concert pianist and virtuoso composer living in the United States.