Congratulations on this milestone ~ and all good wishes for many more in great health and happiness!

It was an honor to have been your student and it is always breathtaking to hear your passionate artistry.

I cherish, and marvel at, the "musical alchemy" you shared creatively and selflessly at every lesson, from the many tiny miracles to the staggeringly profound insights. I feel so lucky to have been forever enriched and inspired by your extraordinary influence.

Thank you, thank you.

With deepest gratitude,

Judy

Happy Birthday! Our paths crossed when I was the librarian for the University of Illinois School of Music Symphony Orchestra, Bernard Goodman, Conductor, and you came and played the Beethoven IV with us. It was wonderful! And you regularly kicked me out of a practice room at Tanglewood in 1960, you with your tattered Schirmer edition of Beethoven III under your arm. You were/are the greatest YAP!!!!! I had all your recordings! You are the greatest! Live forever!

John McCauley

Dear Leon –

You are such a great artist and friend. Thanks for enriching our musical world as you do.

Much love to you on your birthday,

Robert

Dear Mr. Fleisher,

Most heartfelt best wishes to you on your birthday. Yours is the greatest musicianship I've ever heard in person, and I'm especially grateful for having heard your live performances of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12, Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze, Brahms' Cello Sonata No. 1, and Stravinsky's Serenade. All best wishes to you.

Dear Leon:

Happy birthday from your Y family. We look forward to your coming back in good health again and again, whether as a performer or a proud father in the audience.

So, dear Leon, to someone who has lived life to the fullest for 80 magnificent years, we say to you,

L’Chaim!

Helaine Geismar Katz, Hanna Arie-Gaifman and the whole Y team
92nd Street Y

Gelievde Leon: Van harte gefeliciteerd met Uw 80ste verjaardag. Het is onze wens dat U nog vele jaren moogt leven met Kathy, en dat de arthritis ver weg blijft. Nogmaals hartelijk dank voor de gezellige tijd die wij gehad hebben toen jullie hier op Calvin College waren. We waarderen het heel veel. Het allerbeste gewenst aan jullie beiden, en tot ziens (?). Dick en Carol.

Maestro,

It was many years ago you came to Detroit to play the Ravel Concerto for Left Hand. We had seats in the third row, and if I hadn't seen (and heard) it with my own eyes (and ears), I would have never believed it.

For all you do for music lovers and students, a heartfelt thank you, and many happy returns.

Chris Felcyn
WRCJ-FM

Dear Maestro Fleisher,

Warmest congratulations on your 80th birthday from all at the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. We are all looking forward very much to your visit to Birmingham, and it will be a great honour for me especially to work with you.

Justin Brown
Music Director & Principal Conductor

Dear Leon,

I have always been admiring your fabulous performance and great path to glory.

It has been almost a quarter century since I first met you in Aspen and I am so happy to join and celebrate your 80th Birthday today after keeping friendship for so long.

May this birthday be just the beginning of a year filled with happy memories, joyous moments and excitements.

On behalf of all of us here in the Tokyo office, I am sending the very best wishes and hearty "80 sai-no-Otanjyobi Omedetou Gozaimasu!" to you.

Masami Shigeta
Aspen Inc.

I listened to your 1961 recording of Ludwig Van Beethoven's Piano Concerto #3 today. It, along with all of your other recordings, is absolutely marvelous. Happy 80th. May you have as many more as you wish.

Charles

Happy Birthday, Leon.

I hope that this email finds you happily celebrating your 80th Birthday with wild abandon!

It's truly been a pleasure working with you throughout the years from my days with Columbia Artists Management to UCLA and now with the University of Florida. You've always been a consummate professional and one that our field can proudly respect and look up to. You raised the bar for all of us.

With warm and best wishes,

Michael

Dear Leon,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY wishes to you from all of us at the Calvin College Artist Series! We are so grateful that you and Kathy were a part of our season on May 1 in cooperation with our friends at the Gilmore Festival! It was wonderful to see and hear you play on our stage.

May God bless you with many more years of stellar music-making. It's been a joy to hear you play for all these decades, despite your long and challenging years. But more importantly, you continued to use your gifts to form and encourage scores of students over the years. What a gift you have given the world of music and the piano.

Blessings and thank you. Have a wonderful day and many more years ahead.

Darlene Meyering
Calvin College

Dear Leon,

On behalf of all of us at Carnegie Hall, I want to express the great admiration, gratitude, and sense of good luck we all feel when we consider your 64-year performing relationship here at the Hall. After looking at the astonishing list of repertoire and artists with whom you have performed here, the variety of events in which you participated – as well as the generosity in your participation – the word “legendary” hardly seems a hyperbole. But considering each particular performance as well as the attention, thought, inspiration, and brilliance you undoubtedly brought to each of them, our relationship is that much more meaningful. We look forward to working with you for your next 80 years and in the meantime wish you a celebration that allows you the time to appreciate all the good and joy you have brought to us and audiences all over the world.

Sincerely,

Clive Gillinson and all your friends at Carnegie Hall

Dear Leon,

Best wishes for a wonderful 80th birthday! You have been a truly great mentor and inspiration. I cannot possibly thank you enough for all you have meant to me over these years -- 39 of them, if you can believe it!

With love,

Hugh (and Judy)

Dear Leon,

Happy Birthday. Your involvement with the New York String Orchestra Seminar has been so wonderful for the students. And your performances have been so meaningful for me personally. I will never forget the first rehearsal of the Emperor Concerto in Carnegie Hall in December 2001. Your interpretation was so moving - pathos with great optimism. It brought me to tears, and was a cathartic moment after the events of fall 2001.

I look forward to future collaborations.

Many happy returns!

Rohana Elias-Reyes, Director
New School Concerts/NYSOS

Wishing you all the best and the happiest of birthdays, and many more years inspiring us all!

With great admiration,

Gerardo Teissonnière

Praise be--
Your 80th jubilee!
We all decree
ECCO IL LEONE!

Dear Leon:

There's one thing I value about you almost as much I value as your glorious artistry; namely, the memory of the crucial encouragement you once gave a certain fledgling conductor.

I'm still in your debt, as are countless others with whom you've shared your generous spirit, humanity and impeccable musical ethics.

Happy Birthday !!

David

Dear Leon,

Happy Birthday!!!! It was so wonderful to see you again recently. Thank you for your life-long giving to so many, and for your incredible passion for musical excellence. I will never forget my lessons with you.

Keep forging new paths, and I hope your 88th will even outdo this fantastic celebration :).

God bless you, my friend.

Happy Birthday from your friends at The Schubert Club! We look forward to seeing and hearing you on September 14th in the Twin Cities. Warm 80th birthday greetings from Saint Paul!

Your inspired, divine performances give great joy to so many. Thank you! Thank you also for keeping the Schnabel tradition alive for generations to come. Wishing you a wonderful birthday and always the very best,

Ann Schnabel Mottier
François Mottier

Dear Leon,

You can't possibly be 80! If you are, it means that I'm older than I want to be.

Seriously, I want to wish you the very best for your birthday, and for many, many years to come. Your contribution to the world of music has been enormous -- in many, many ways -- and I am very proud to have known you.

Henry (and love from Fran too)

Warmest, most excellent birthday wishes, Leon, and infinite thanks for many memorable musical experiences ever since I heard you play the two Brahms concertos with Sir Malcolm Sargent and the LSO in the early days when I was managing that orchestra.

Ernest Fleischmann

Happy Birthday, Leon. You can wear my jacket any time!!

Lots of love,

Alan

Dear Leon,

Congratulations and best wishes for having reached this significant milestone in your life. Congratulations, too, on the Kennedy Center Honor awarded in December. All of us at the University Musical Society of the University of Michigan join in wishing you the very best today...and forever.

Ken and Penny Fischer

Dear Leon,

Warmest congratulations on your 80th birthday!

Your lifelong contributions to music and to the happiness of millions of people around the world are a legacy of which you should be truly proud.

These impressive contributions are equaled by your wonderful and gentlemanly personality and charm, traits all too rare today.

Very best wishes from all your friends at the Kansas City Symphony!

Frank Byrne
Executive Director

Congratulations and happy birthday, Leon!

With great admiration and respect,

Fima

Dear Leon,

As a pianist myself I have struggled for years trying to find who I am in the music, and in my performance thereof.

As a concert level performer you have inspired so many of us by performing at a level that so few can. You have demonstrated with certainty who you are, and in doing so have set the bar very high for every performer wanting to truly experience music.

On this day I wish you the happiest of birthdays, and thank you for allowing us to share in your enjoyment of the piano!

Sincerely,

Jonathan Finger

WOW, What a Marvelous Milestone. Happy 80th. Thank you for the always great music. Here's to many more.

Alethea Brown
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dear Leon,

Marcia and I want to send you our heartfelt congratulations with our deep gratitude for the wonderful and unforgettable musical experiences you have given us over the years -- from Bach to Hieronymous Kern.

You have been an inspiration to us and so many others.

With love from Richard and Marcia

Dearest Leon,

To say you helped significantly in propelling my career is to just scratch the surface. There isn't a scale that measures inspiration, a meter that records friendship, or a thermometer that takes the temperature of affection. But if there were, the scale would have tilted over, the meter would have permanently stuck to the right, and the thermometer would have burst in pride. It is a joy to say that I know you, a deep source of satisfaction to know that I have worked with you, and a pleasure to send the warmest birthday greetings I can muster.

Love,

Peter Bay

Dear Leon,

You share a birthday with my son. On July 23 he will be 14 years old, while you are 80 years young! Thank you so much for your wonderful concerts with the National Philharmonic at Strathmore, earlier this year.

With much fondness,

Piotr Gajewski
Music Director & Conductor
National Philharmonic

Does it seem like a lifetime ago that you whipped me in ping-pong at the Christadora house when you visited your grandmother? It must have been 1943 or so. If ever there was a life well spent, it has been yours and all the warm congratulations, to which I add my own, are truly warranted and earned.

Happy birthday.

George Sturm
Music Associates of America

Happy Birthday, Leon!

Dear Papa Leon-

We can't believe you are already 80 years old. Hope you have a good birthday, and enjoy it with someone special. May the music be with you!

Love,

Rachel and Jason Waterbury

To dear Leon,

Wow - 80 years young!
I'm in awe and smiling as I read all of these wishes, and see how many lives you have touched and continue to inspire.

Wishing you a memorable, fun, and wonderful birthday.

Enjoy!

Lots of love,

Sandi

Dear Leon,

What a very special occasion this is. All best wishes for a happy birthday.

Michael

Dear Leon,

I send you much love on this special day.

You have always been my musical hero. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of you, and continue to grow and learn from all that you taught me. Your musical thinking and profound understanding have forever changed me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and join all lovers of your incomparable artistry in wishing you the happiest of birthdays and many more to come -

Michael Lewin

Like thousands like me, you're my teacher's teacher. Happy birthday to you, and thank you for the incredible artistry you've contributed to so many, in so many ways.

Dear Leon,

I wish you all the best on this, your BIG birthday!! Looking forward to seeing you and making music with you again soon.

With much love,

Phil
Emerson String Quartet

Happy Birthday, Leon! We are all so excited for you on your Big Day. Wishing you and Kathy all the very best for a glorious and blessed birthday celebration.

Warmest regards from Singapore,

Tom Hecht
Head of Piano Studies
National University of Singapore

Leon,

Wishing you a most joyous happy birthday. We look forward to celebrating with you on October 3 in Boston.

Marty Jones and the Celebrity Series

Dear Leon,

I'll never forget sitting in your studio at Peabody with Evelyn Hayes being inspired by your wonderful teaching, let alone the hundreds of times that I have replayed your recordings as well as enjoying your live performances. My very best wishes to you for many more years of sharing your music and inspiring us all.

Larry Tucker

Our Heartiest Wishes for many more happy birthdays. We are enjoying your successful return to the keyboard. We were lucky to sit in on a master class of Brahm's D minor concerto at Rubin Academy in Jerusalem some years ago. We were also lucky to attend many of your concerts through the years. Thank you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Ruth and Bert Reinhold

Dear Mr. Fleisher,

While it's true that in your first 80 years, you've set a standard that the rest of us will spend our lifetimes trying to live up to, I am eagerly (and selfishly) awaiting what the next 80 will bring! Congratulations on this milestone, and thank you, as ever, for the joy of knowing you and hearing you make music.

Happy Birthday!

CONGRATULATIONS!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY & MUCH LOVE TO YOU, DEAR LEON.

ALWAYS,

ANDRE

Dear Leon,

Congratulations on this milestone. It has been a privilege to know and work with you over the last decade. Our concerts together and the Brahms Quintet recording have been a source of satisfaction and pride. I look forward to seeing you again soon, onstage and off. Good luck with all your concerts this summer.

Best wishes,

Gene Drucker
Emerson String Quartet

Dear Maestro Fleisher:

It was always a pleasure to work with you… and to be in your company.

A gentleman and a great pianist… doubtless surrounded by a great soul… that's what you are.

With kindest regards and "may another 100 years be yours,"

Ricard de La Rosa, President
Pro Piano
The Pro Piano New York Recital Series

Dear Leon...

Happiest 80th Birthday, Dear Friend. You will always be our Godfather, a cherished colleague, & the best of friends.

We adore you!!!!

Love,

Sharon & Jaime

Dear Leon,

From all of us at New World, we wish you the very best on your 80th birthday! I hope there's lots of great music making on your special day.

Howard Herring
President and CEO
New World Symphony

Dear Leon,

On behalf of the Conductors Guild, we wish you a very Happy Birthday!! It was a pleasure to have you with us in January at our conference in Baltimore. We wish you all the best!

Amanda Burton Winger
Executive Director

Very best and celebratory wishes to a musician whose passionate devotion to his art has enriched the lives of so many.

Norman Bemelmans
Director of Cultural Affairs
University of North Carolina Wilmington

Dear Leon,

Happy, happy birthday! Here's to many more!

Fondly,

Leon, it is a real privilege to work with you. All my best to you on your day!

Bonnie Blankenship

Dear Leon -

From our first meeting at Marlboro in 1960 and those late-night poker games, to the great pleasure of having you join the FSA Family, it is a joy to have you as a friend and an honor to help share with others your moving artistry and humanity. Here's to many more years together.

Love from Martha and me,

Frank

Having grown up with your wonderful recordings of Beethoven and Brahms concertos on LPs I now treasure them all over again on CDs. They are some of the greatest performances of the greatest concertos. I thank you, and wish you a Happy Birthday!

Dear Leon,

I still remember your first concert in Madrid, after winning the Queen Elisabeth prize, playing the Franck Symphonic variations, and Liszt's Concerto nº 2. It was the absolute summit of perfection!

Happy, happy birthday Leon.

With affection,

Alfonso Aijon

Dear Mr. Fleisher,

Over a four year period I had the privilege to sit in on your master classes when I was a young cello student at Peabody. I will always be grateful to you (and the great pianists who played for you) for what you taught me about music.

Happy Birthday to a great man & a great musician!

Neale Perl
President, WPAS

Dear Leon,

Let me add my happy birthday wishes to those of so many others. The chance I had to play Brahms c minor piano quartet with you (in Baltimore, many years ago, with Laurie Smukler and Ira Weller) is a treasured memory.

Here's to many, many more years of health and happiness. With warmest regards -- Bob

Robert Martin
Director, Bard College Conservatory of Music
Vice President for Academic Affairs
Bard College

Happy Birthday, Leon!

Can you imagine, Leon, that you have been a member of our Steinway Artist family for 61 years?

What a privilege it has been for us to accompany you throughout your celebrated musical journey!

There are few pianists who have loomed as large in the world of music as you have. Your public performances have cultivated an enormous international fan club, and your recordings are considered paragons of the genre. As a teacher, you have inspired countless musicians to embrace the joy of making music, both as a vocation and as an avocation.

Thank you, Leon, for all you are and for all that you have done and continue to do to make the world a better place.

Sending you bouquets of affection,

The staff and craftsmen of Steinway & Sons worldwide

We here at the Abbey Bach Festival send you gratitude for the music you have created for us and congratulations for the recovery you have made. We are particularly thankful for instruction you have given Alon Goldstein, one of our favorite artists. We wish you many more productive and rewarding years.

Happy Birthday! Hau'oli la hanau!
We are so happy we'll be hosting you this year on Maui!

With warmest aloha,
Karen
Maui Arts & Cultural Center

Happy 80th!

All of our audience, patrons, board and staff of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County wish you a very happy birthday. Thank you for your great artistry and generosity of spirit.

Dear Leon,

We are all cheering in the mountains as you pass this milestone, and wishing you many years to come.

Best,
Alan

Dear Leon,

Though I was fortunate to be in your orbit only for five years, your influence on me is permanent. We actually met during my 'radio life' in the 1980s when I interviewed you for WFMT in Chicago, but our real contact dates from my sojourn with The Boston Symphony from 1989-1994. Each summer, you would weave your magic spell over all of us-BSO, staffers and students. Teaching, anecdoting, and of course playing. I will always have your trademark 'sound' in my ear-that plangent richness of tone, coupled with a musical probity that happens only once or twice in a generation. Mazeltov, dear Leon or as we say in Greek - 'na ta katostisis!' may you live to be a hundred.

Evans Mirageas

Greetings & Birthday Wishes from Music Worcester, Inc.

Dearest Leon,

I would like to wish you, on behalf of all the Goldsteins, a most wonderful 80th birthday!!

There is a very meaningful Jewish poem from the Middle Ages that starts with the words "My heart is in the East while I am far out West". And so, although I am in Seattle right now, my heart / our hearts are with you and your family on this glorious day.

When I went to Tanglewood (1996), I remember you wishing us students that our experience would be an "everlasting increase of awareness". The privilege of studying with you, Leon, and later on playing with you, as well as continually drawing from the wealth of your boundless musicianship is always, and will forever be, a source of energy and inspiration to us all.

Yours always, with much love,
Alon Goldstein

Congratulations and best wishes on your 80th Birthday. It was so wonderful to hear you play with two hands again.

The ladies of Tuesday Musical and Barbara and Marvin Taxman thank you.

Hi dear friend,

I treasure the years we had together at Tanglewood, your friendship and your incomparable artistry. I love you dearly.

Gil

Dearest Leon:

I wish you all the joy in your 80th year that you have brought and continue to bring to countless others. What an honor and pleasure it was to have you on our 2007 Summer Concert Series. All who attended continue to comment on that wonderful and exhilarating experience.

Here's to your many more years of life and music!

Fondly,

Mark Hart, Executive & Artistic Director
Coral Gables Congregational Church Community Arts Program