http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2017/11/10/concert-pianist-john-bayless-mentored-leonard-bernstein-now-performs-one-handed-after-stroke/766831001/
Bayless, a renowned pianist and composer, suffered a stroke and now plays piano one-handed. (Nov. 2017)
Renowned
pianist, composer and prolific recording artist John Bayless
experienced a rude awakening on the first night he and his partner,
Bruce Franchini, spent at their new home in the desert.
The
couple had just moved from the Bay Area to a two-story residence in
Indio in 2007 and were still waiting for the furniture – and John’s
Steinway Concert Grand Piano – to arrive.
“I was
sleeping and I had a terrible, horrific nightmare and I woke up – and
something was wrong with my right arm," he said. “I jumped out of bed
because it was a little hot in the bedroom, and I turned down the
thermostat, got back in bed. Twenty minutes later is when I was
breathing funny … that’s when Bruce woke me up. I couldn’t sit up – he
had to prop me up.”
John, 53 at the time, had
suffered a stroke that affected the right side of his body. He lost the
ability to speak for about 24 hours. An ambulance rushed him to
Eisenhower Medical Center where he spent three days before starting the
grueling rehabilitation process.
An
in-patient stroke rehabilitation program at Desert Regional Medical
Center afforded him the opportunity to undergo occupational, speech and
physical therapy daily for two weeks. Not long after he completed the
program, he met local philanthropist Peggy Cravens, who, among her other
charitable work in the desert, is Chairman of the Board of the Virginia
Waring International Piano Competition.
“The night before I left Desert Regional, a lady came to my room – a physical therapist that had been recommended,” John said.
John was going to need in-home physical therapy, and the couple had been referred to physical therapist Kay Folmar.
“Bruce
called her and said, ‘Could you please come meet John,’ and she said,
‘Yes, I’d love to,’ and she walked into my room and she said, ‘I know
you.’ I said, ‘We’ve never met.’ She said, 'I have your records,’ and I
started crying because I thought, ‘Oh my God, I can’t play.’”
During this time, Folmar had been working with Donald Cravens – Peggy’s husband – who had also suffered a stroke.
“She
came one day and said, ‘Mrs. Cravens, I’m working with someone … aren’t
you the president of an international piano competition?’” Cravens
recounted. “I said, ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘Oh, you have to meet John
Bayless!’”
“I said, ‘I know that name,’ and (Kay)
said, ‘Yes, he’s had a fabulous career as a concert pianist and sadly,
he just had a stroke and he’s paralyzed on his right side.’ And I said,
‘Oh, I’d love to meet him. Hopefully we can get him involved at the
Waring.’”
“It was thrilling for me,” John said. “Talk about meant to be.”
Kay
suggested he give Peggy one of his albums. He gave her an autographed
copy of a Puccini album. Peggy invited John and Bruce to the competition
and they attended the finals at the Indian Wells Theater on the
California State University San Bernardino Palm Desert campus.
“It was pretty soon thereafter that Bruce and I were on the board,” John said.
Bruce, a
producer and director who won two Daytime Emmys for directing Julia
Child in "Baking With Julia" (1997) and "Julia & Jacques Cooking at
Home" (2000), died in 2013 at the age of 69 of cancer. Since then, John
has moved to Desert Island in Rancho Mirage, where he and Peggy are
neighbors.
Composer, pianist, recording artist
John,
who’s been playing the piano since the age of four, attended the
Julliard School of Music and studied with Leonard Bernstein, Jules
Styne, Arthur Laurents and other notables in the field of musical
composition. As a performer, both solo piano and with orchestra, he’s
appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and has
appeared with the Boston Pops and New York Pops among others.
He
made his recording debut in 1985 with an album entitled, “Happy
Birthday Bach,” which was created in honor of Bach's 300-year
birthday celebration. Two subsequent releases, “Bach meets the Beatles”
and “Bach on Abby Road,” contained his improvisations on Beatles
melodies. The former was selected as one of the Top Ten Classical
Crossover Recordings of the 1980's by Billboard Magazine. The Puccini
Album Arias for Piano soared to No. 1 on Billboard Magazine's Classical
Crossover Chart where it remained for 18 weeks, selling over 175,000
albums.
John
grew up in the Texas panhandle town of Borger, where his dad was an
automobile dealer, selling Fords and Lincoln Mercuries. His mother was a
singer and, early on, both of his parents realized his musical talent
and encouraged his development as a pianist.
“I
went to Aspen Music School in the summer when I was 16 and 17 and met
the teacher I subsequently studied with at Julliard, Adele Marcus,” John
said.
John needed a high school diploma to get
into Julliard, but he was also practicing the piano full time during
these school years and flying from Amarillo to Houston twice a month for
piano lessons. His mother explained the situation to school
administrators and they put him in “easy” classes – the bare minimum
required to graduate.
John practiced the piano daily before school at 6:30 a.m. and then after school from about 2:30 or 3 p.m. until 7 or 8 p.m.
He
graduated in 1971 with diploma in hand. It was his ticket to Julliard,
which he attended for five years. He took six months off near the end of
his stay to have an operation. While he was at home, he began composing
more.
“I didn’t want to play Beethoven, I didn’t
want to play all that stuff anymore. I wanted to compose. Fortunately,
my parents understood and they supported me a couple of years," John
said.
One of the influential families that Bayless
met was Nat Lefkowitz, the president of the William Morris agency, and
his wife Sally. They took him under their wing.
"I
was their protégé," John said. "One Saturday, Sally calls me and says,
‘You have a clean shirt?’ I said, ‘Yeah, why?’ We’re going to a dinner
tonight and I want you to come and I hope they have a piano.’ They
picked me up. I go to the dinner and I’m sitting there and this man
across the table says, ‘How would you like to play in Carnegie Hall?’
"I
flipped my wig and I said, ‘Of course, it’s a dream.’ He said, “I
support a concert every year by the musician’s union for orchestras in
New York and we’re having a concert in May. He said if you’ve got the
Leftkowitz’s support, you’ve got to be tops.’
“So, I did. June 9, 1980 and I played Rhapsody in Blue and my own piano concerto that I wrote. That was pretty special.”
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