{{Short description|American pianist and musical promoter (1929–2025)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Charles Wadsworth | image = Charles Wadsworth (2a).jpg | caption = Wadsworth, {{circa}} 1990 | birth_date = {{birth date|1929|05|21}} | birth_place = Barnesville, Georgia, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2025|05|29|1929|05|21}} | death_place = | occupation = {{Ubl| Pianist | Festival director }} | education = {{ubl| University of Georgia | Juilliard School }} | organizations = {{Ubl| Festival dei Due Mondi | Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center | Spoleto Festival USA }} | awards = {{ubl| Ordre des Arts et des Lettres | Order of Merit of the Italian Republic | Order of the Palmetto }} }}
'''Charles Wadsworth''' (May 21, 1929 – May 29, 2025) was an American classical pianist and musical promoter from Newnan, Georgia. He established series of chamber music concerts, first at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, in 1969 for the new Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City, and in 1977 at the Spoleto Festival USA, directing it until 2009. For both the Spoleto series, he kept program and performers a secret until personally announcing them at the beginning of each concert.
== Life and career == Wadsworth was born in Barnesville, Georgia, on May 21, 1929,<ref name="Kozinn" /><ref name="Violin Channel" /> to Charles Wadsworth, a grocer and country fiddler, and Ethel Capps who worked in a shop for woman's clothing. They moved to Newnan. His mother took him to listen to concerts in Atlanta, including recitals of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Vladimir Horowitz.<ref name="Kozinn" /> After local piano lessons, he studied from age 12 with Hugh Hodgson who founded the music department at the University of Georgia<ref name="Kozinn" /><ref name="Violin Channel" /> in Athens.<ref name="Spoleto USA" /> Hodgson supported his interest in contemporary music and chamber music. Wadsworth also studied organ, playing in churches and for religious revivals. He began to accompany church singers on tours.<ref name="Kozinn" /> He later worked as a vocal coach and accompanist for singers including Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Reri Grist, Jan Peerce, Beverly Sills, Frederica von Stade, and Shirley Verrett.<ref name="Kozinn" />
He moved to New York City at age 19, to study at Juilliard School with Alton Jones and Rosalyn Tureck.<ref name="Kozinn" /><ref name="Violin Channel" /> During his studies, he was director and accompanist of a church performance of Menotti's ''Amahl and the Night Visitors''.<ref name="Kozinn" /><ref name="Violin Channel" /> Menotti was thankful, and they met in 1958 when Wadsworth appeared at an audition. Menotti invited the pianist to play Carlos Surinach's Piano Concerto at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto that he had founded. In 1959, Menotti invited him further to establish a chamber music series there.<ref name="Kozinn" /> The concerts, played from 1960, brought him international recognition. Players included pianist Sviatoslav Richter, already well-known, and cellist Jacqueline du Pré at the beginning of her career. His series presented a daily concert for the month the festival lasted. Both pieces and players came as a surprise, which he announced at the beginning of each concert in broken Italian mixed with English, all of them in live broadcasts. Listeners laughed a lot, and he become known as "one of the most popular radio comedians".<ref name="Kozinn" />
The concerts in Spoleto brought him to the attention of William Schuman, president of Lincoln Center. When Schuman planned the Alice Tully Hall in 1965, he asked Wadsworth for a proposal for a chamber music series.<ref name="Kozinn" /> Based on it, Wadsworth became artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center a year later.<ref name="Kozinn" /><ref name="CMSLC" /> The first concert was held for the inauguration of the hall on September 11, 1969,<ref name="Kozinn" /><ref name="CMSLC" /> with a program of Bach's Trio Sonata in C, Schumann’s ''Dichterliebe'', performed by baritone Hermann Prey, accompanied by Wadsworth, and Schubert's String Quintet.<ref name="Kozinn" /> He led the organization as artistic director for twenty seasons, commissioning more than 60 new works, such as John Corigliano's ''Poem in October'', David Del Tredici's ''Haddocks' Eyes'', Boulez's ''...explosante-fixe...'', Ned Rorem's ''Winter Pages'', and Oliver Knussen's ''Ophelia Dances'',<ref name="Kozinn" /> and works by Samuel Barber and Leonard Bernstein, among others<ref name="Violin Channel" /> He also presented many young performers, including Kathleen Battle, Richard Goode, Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman, Peter Serkin, and Pinchas Zukerman.<ref name="Violin Channel" /><ref name="CMSLC" /> In his programs, he turned away from classical string quartets, towards different composers and different instrumental ensembles, for example Couperin's ''Le Parnasse, ou L'Apothéose de Corelli'', Jan Dismas Zelenka's Trio Sonata for two oboes, bassoon and continuo, and Anton Arensky's Suite No. 1 for two pianos.<ref name="Kozinn" />
He also started a chamber music concert series at Menotti's Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1977, which he directed through 2009.<ref name="Kozinn" /><ref name="Spoleto USA" /> Concerts were held twice a day, again as surprise concerts. He won the Emerson String Quartet for the festival; the St. Lawrence String Quartet became the festival's quartet in residence.<ref name="Spoleto USA" />
In 1996, Wadsworth organized a concert for the 1996 Summer Olympics, which included performances by Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Lynn Harrell, and Frederica von Stade.
Wadsworth was invited to perform at the White House for Presidents John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan.<ref name="Violin Channel" /><ref name="Spoleto USA" />
=== Personal life and death === Wadsworth was first married to Sarah Wadsworth; they had two children, Beryl Rajnic and David Wadsworth, but the marriage ended in divorce. He was married to Susan née Popkin, the founder of Young Concert Artists, from 1966; they had a daughter, Rebecca Banks.<ref name="Kozinn" />
Wadsworth died at a rehabilitation center in Manhattan on May 29, 2025, at the age of 96.<ref name="Kozinn" /><ref name="Spoleto USA" /><ref name="CMSLC" />
== Honors == Wadsworth received awards from the French Government as a ''Chevalier'' in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and from Italy as a ''Cavaliere Ufficiale'' in the Order of Merit. He also received the Handel Medallion for his contributions to the cultural life of the New York City.<ref name="Violin Channel" />
The Art Deco municipal auditorium in Newnan was renovated and renamed in 1998 the Charles Wadsworth Auditorium in his honor.<ref name="Kozinn" /><ref name="Violin Channel" /> He performed there annually from 1990 on.<ref name="Kozinn" /><ref name="Spoleto USA" /><ref name="times-herald1">[http://www.times-herald.com/close-up/Wadsworth--amp--Friends-Concert-2010-welcomes-cellist--pianist--956039 Wadsworth & Friends Concert 2010 welcomes cellist, pianist] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717060200/http://www.times-herald.com/close-up/Wadsworth--amp--Friends-Concert-2010-welcomes-cellist--pianist--956039 |date=July 17, 2011 }}. ''The Times-Herald'', January 20, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2011.</ref>
The University of West Georgia created the Charles Wadsworth Music Scholarship in his honor. It was first established in 1990 by a citizens' group from Newnan, Georgia.<ref>[https://archive.today/20121215111151/http://www.westga.edu/music/index_8396.php Music Department | Wadsworth Auditions]. University of West Georgia, August 29, 2011. Retrieved October 18, 2011.</ref> He received the Order of the Palmetto and the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Award for the Arts in South Carolina. He was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2012.<ref name="Spoleto USA" />
== Recordings == * ''Judith Blegen & Frederica von Stade: Songs, Arias & Duets'', with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Columbia, 1975
==References== <references>
<ref name="Kozinn">{{cite news | last = Kozinn | first = Allan | author-link = Allan Kozinn | date = May 30, 2025 | title = Charles Wadsworth, Pianist and Champion of Chamber Music, Dies at 96 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/arts/music/charles-wadsworth-dead.html | access-date = June 3, 2025 | newspaper = The New York Times | language = en-US | issn = 0362-4331 }}</ref>
<ref name="CMSLC">{{cite news | date = May 30, 2025 | title = Charles Wadsworth, 1929–2025 | url = https://www.chambermusicsociety.org/news/charles-wadsworth/ | access-date = June 3, 2025 | work = Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center | language = en-US }}</ref>
<ref name="Spoleto USA">{{cite news | url = https://spoletousa.org/blog/charles-wadsworth/ | title = Charles Wadsworth, 1929–2025 | work = The Violin Channel | date = May 30, 2025 | access-date = June 3, 2025 }}</ref>
<ref name="Violin Channel">{{cite news | url = https://theviolinchannel.com/pianist-charles-wadsworth-has-died-aged-96/ | title = Pianist Charles Wadsworth has Died, Aged 96 | work = Spoleto Festival USA | date = May 30, 2025 | access-date = June 3, 2025 }}</ref>
</references>
== External links == * {{IMDb name| 11043059}} * {{discogs artist|Charles Wadsworth}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wadsworth, Charles}} Category:1929 births Category:2025 deaths Category:21st-century American classical pianists Category:American classical pianists Category:American male classical pianists Category:People from Coweta County, Georgia Category:University of Georgia alumni Category:21st-century American male pianists