Pianist Gary Graffman died on Saturday in New York. He was 97.  He was a teacher and also president at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he started studying at 7. He stepped down from the faculty at age 92 in 2021.

As a pianist he made a great career. He recorded much of the romantic-era piano literature for RCA and Columbia, and with some of the great orchestras of the United States. Most notably, he recorded Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein.

He suffered from dystonia and had to cancel a lot of engagements at age 50 and began teaching.