# Alexander Libermann

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**Alexander Libermann** (1896–1978) was a [Bay Area](/source/Bay_Area)-based pianist and educator who taught piano at [Mills College](/source/Mills_College).

He completed his early musical training in Kiev, Russian Empire, before fleeing to Germany, where he studied with [Egon Petri](/source/Egon_Petri) and [Ferrucio Busoni](/source/Ferrucio_Busoni), and France, where he was forced to live in hiding from Nazis. In 1947, he accepted an invitation from Petri to join the faculty at Mills College.[1] He and his wife Stefa settled permanently in California, and he taught at Mills for 31 years until his death.[2] Libermann has a far-reaching influence, and is linked as an instructor to many professional musicians, including pianists [William Corbett Jones](/source/William_Corbett_Jones)[3] and Lois Brandwynne,[4] and pianist-composer [Elinor Armer](/source/Elinor_Armer).[5]

In 1984, Armer compiled a series of his lectures into a volume entitled *A Comprehensive Approach to the Piano,* in which he discusses his method of playing the instrument. Central to this are the theories that the keys should be moved using the hand's natural "grasping" motion, and that music-making should be a largely mental phenomenon and pianists should therefore do much of their practicing in their heads.[2]

## References

1. ["Egon PETRI and the PETRIOTS"](http://www.pianoeu.com/petri.html)

1. Libermann, Alexander. A Comprehensive Approach to the Piano. Elinor Armer Ed. Berkeley: The Arif Press, 1984. Print.

1. ["Biography « William Corbett-Jones"](http://williamcorbett-jones.com/biography/)

1. ["About Lois Brandwynne, Concert Pianist"](http://www.loisbrandwynne.com/about.html)

1. ["Elinor Armer :: Collegiate Faculty :: San Francisco Conservatory of Music"](https://web.archive.org/web/20100824061146/http://www.sfcm.edu/faculty/armer.aspx). Archived from [the original](http://www.sfcm.edu/faculty/armer.aspx) on 2010-08-24. Retrieved 2010-10-12.

## External links

- [http://www.pianoeu.com/petri.html](http://www.pianoeu.com/petri.html)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alexander Libermann](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Libermann) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Libermann?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.