11.11.05 (AP) New album, master classes, concert performances in Europe and America - EARL WILD is turning 90, but that's not stopping him. Neither are two eye operations and a quadruple bypass. "After I had my (heart) operation," the pianist says, "I decided I wasn't going to stop playing because why live if you can't play, when you've done it all your life?" Wild started playing the piano at age 3, and studied with some of the best teachers, moving on to perform in orchestras led by Fritz Reiner, Otto Klemperer and Arturo Toscanini. In 1939, EARL WILD became the first pianist to give a solo recital on American television. Three years later, he performed Gershwin's 'Rhapsody In Blue' in a national radio broadcast under Toscanini's baton. He also played and wrote music for Sid Caesar's TV show for three years, and has performed for six American presidents, from Herbert Hoover to Lyndon Johnson. No wonder his latest album, released this Summer on the Ivory Classics label, is called "Living History." It's Wild's 57th album and comes 71 years after his first recording. According to his website, EARL WILD has recorded more than 35 piano concertos and 700 solo pieces. Despite his vast discography, Wild had never recorded Bach's 'First Partita,' Scriabin's Fourth Sonata or Schumann's 'Fantasiestueke,' all of which are on the album. Also on the "Living History," which he recorded at 88, is Franck's 'Prelude, Chorale And Fugue.' Wild turns 90 on Wednesday, and celebrates it publicly on November 29th with a recital at Carnegie Hall, where he's planning to play works by Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin and himself. This Summer, he led a master class at Mannes College Of Music in New York. In September, he performed in Amsterdam's "Concertgebouw," and has programs scheduled for this month, including a solo recital at Clinton Town Hall in Clinton, Connecticut on November 20th. Being a link between past and future, EARL WILD still teaches at his home in Columbus, Ohio, giving each student up to five-hour lessons once every three weeks. He also has regular master classes at Carnegie Mellon University in his native city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After his operations earlier this year, Wild resumed playing in the Spring. "I was in surgery for seven hours, so it took a long time to get the anesthesia out of the body," he said. "As soon as I felt that that was almost out I started." At first, it was 30 minutes a day, then an hour, then three hours by the summer. "It was the only way," he said. "If you wait, you just get duller and duller." He said when he started taking piano lessons, he would practice to drown out the quarreling between his parents. "Practice was a refuge," he said. "It's one place where you could be by yourself and you could throw yourself into it. I think that whatever details are the most important thing in music, it's easy to play something for the most part when you start to do the hard work, and slow. Then you find the details. That's where good music starts." For EARL WILD, the good music will never stop and he never plans to retire, although a case of bronchitis after his recent concert in The Netherlands forced him to cancel two concerts in October. "Oh no! People who are retired die. They go to Florida, play golf for a little while, then drop dead. I mean it's terrible. When people are alive and they are able to do something, they should do something even if it's basket weaving, because to not do something is to give up. So never give up."

[Classical News: October 2005]