Guy Maier

Guy Silas Maier (August 15, 1891, in Buffalo, New York – September 24, 1956, in Santa Monica, California) was an American pianist, composer, arranger, teacher, and writer. From about 1919 to 1931, he was a member of the two-piano team of Maier and Pattison.

Early life

Guy Maier was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of John Maier, a retail shoe dealer, and his wife, Eva D. Maier. As a boy, he aspired to be a Presbyterian minister, but his musical talent turned him in the direction of the piano and the organ. He enrolled at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he studied piano with Carl Baermann, a friend and pupil of Franz Liszt. In Boston, Maier met Lee Pattison, a recent New England Conservatory graduate who was also a fine pianist.

Following Maier's graduation in 1913, Maier and Pattison left together for Europe, where they hoped to become pupils of Harold Bauer, Josef Hofmann, or Artur Schnabel, all eminent pianists of the time. They found that Bauer was away and Hofmann took no pupils, but Schnabel agreed to teach them. So they went to Berlin, where Schnabel coached them for about a year. In Berlin, Schnabel and Maier formed a friendship that endured until Schnabel's death. Maier and Pattison returned to Boston in 1914, where Maier made his solo debut as a concert pianist.

Career

Maier and Pattison After Maier and Pattison heard a two-piano performance by Harold Bauer and Ossip Gabrilowitsch, they began to play together. and Pattison joined the infantry. In France, they gave two-piano recitals for American troops. After the armistice, they gave a recital in Paris that was attended by President Woodrow Wilson and French Premier Georges Clemenceau. In 1928, they gave the Carnegie Hall premiere of Mozart's Andante and Variations, K. 501. As their reputation grew, they became known as "The Piano Twins".

Recordings Both individually and as a member of Maier and Pattison, Maier recorded piano rolls under the Welte Mignon and Ampico labels. He and Pattison were also pioneers in acoustic recording, producing popular recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company in the early 1920s.

Recitals for young people As a soloist (and sometimes joined by his wife Lois, also an accomplished pianist), Maier gave recitals for young people coupled with musical travelogues. "He is not only clever as a pianist," the Los Angeles Times reported, "but the way he keeps the attention of a grammar-school audience of squirming, tired-at-the-end-of-the-day youngsters is nothing short of miraculous. It is all fun to him and he makes the children 'see into' the music he plays with brief and witty words."

Teaching Maier taught at the University of Michigan from 1921 to 1931, at the Juilliard School in New York from 1935 to 1942, and at the University of California at Los Angeles from 1946 to 1956. As a teacher, he traveled widely across the United States, giving master classes at colleges, universities, and private music schools. His notable piano students included Dalies Frantz and Leonard Pennario.

Etude Magazine Beginning in November 1935, Maier began a long association with Etude Magazine. He wrote monthly columns, first under the heading of "The Teacher's Roundtable" and later "The Pianist's Page", in which he answered questions from piano teachers. After his death, a collection of his Etude columns was compiled by his widow and published under the title of The Piano Teacher's Companion.

Other activities In 1937, Maier was regional director of the Works Progress Administration's music project in New York. In that capacity, he helped to organize orchestras, string quartets, bands and singing groups in twelve states. In 1940, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from the Sherwood Music School in Chicago.

Family Guy Maier and his wife, Lois Auten Maier (née Warner), had two sons, Robert A. Maier, born March 14, 1924, and Theodore C. Maier, born June 25, 1925.