Pianist Charles Wadsworth has Died, Aged 96

Wadsworth was the founder, director and host of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York

Born on May 21, 1929, in Barnesville, Georgia, Charles Wadsworth started his musical career on the piano. When he was 12, he began studying in Atlanta with Hugh Hodgson, the founder of the music department at the University of Georgia.

Wadsworth moved to New York to attend the Juilliard School at age 19, where he studied with Alton Jones and the Bach specialist Rosalyn Tureck. During those early years in New York, he directed and accompanied a church performance of Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” Menotti later invited Wadsworth to perform at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. There, Wadsworth created the Festival's Midday Concerts (Concerti di Mezzogiorno), which featured the likes of pianist Sviatoslav Richter and cellist Jacqueline du Pré.

In 1977, Wadsworth brought this series to Charleston, S.C., where the Spoleto USA Festival was born. He served as its artistic director for 30 years.

Back in New York, he was made the Artistic Director of the new Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As its founding Artistic Director, he commissioned 65 new chamber works from celebrated composers such as Boulez, Barber, and Bernstein.

During his tenure, the society premiered works like including John Corigliano’s “Poem in October,” David Del Tredici’s “Haddocks’ Eyes,” Pierre Boulez’s “ … explosante/fixe …,” Ned Rorem’s “Winter Pages” and Oliver Knussen’s “Ophelia Dances,” all of which became staples.

"His contributions to the genre of chamber music were immense, and he worked tirelessly to bring this body of work to audiences around the world," the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center wrote on its Facebook. "By programming a wide range of instrumental and vocal combinations, expanding listeners’ understanding of classic repertoire, and commissioning dozens of new works, he constantly advocated for a capacious understanding of what chamber music could be."

"CMS is deeply grateful to Charles Wadsworth for his many years of dedication to artists and audiences, and to the chamber music art form," he added. "His legacy will endure for generations to come."

He presented artists as Beverly Sills, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and André -atts, plsu the "then-new" artists like Kathleen Battle, Richard Goode, Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Serkin, Pinchas Zukerman, and Jessye Norman.

Wadsworth's accolades include New York's Handel Medallion, the City's highest cultural award, and honorary Doctorates from the University of South Carolina, Converse College, and Connecticut College. He was also honored by the French Government as a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters, and by Italy as a Cavaliere Ufficiale in the Order of Merit.

He has performed for Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan at the White House. The City of Newnan, Georgia, honored him with the Charles Wadsworth Auditorium, in which he has presented concerts annually since 1990.

Later in his career, he served as the Artistic Director of the Musical Masterworks series in Old Lyme, CT, and chamber concert series in Beaufort, Columbia, Hilton Head, and Camden, South Carolina.

In June 2001, he created the musical component of Paris' Festival at Espace Pierre Cardin, sponsored by the French American Center for the Arts.

Our condolences to Mr. Wadsworth's family, friends, and colleagues.