CRAIG LIABRAATEN'S
MUSICAL FAMILY TREE
TRACING LIABRAATEN'S MUSICAL ROOTS TO LISZT & BEETHOVEN

Briefly, Craig LiaBraaten's "Musical Family Tree" looks like this:

CRAIG LIABRAATEN STUDIED WITH GYORGY SEBOK, WHO STUDIED WITH BELA BARTOK, WHO STUDIED WITH ISTVAN THOMAN, WHO STUDIED WITH FRANZ LISZT, WHO STUDIED WITH CARL CZERNY, WHO STUDIED WITH LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN. Quite an impressive musical family for all the pianists and chamber music ensembles who have had the pleasure of studying under the renowned Gyorgy Sebok.  Here in more detail is Craig LiaBraaten's Musical  "Family Tree":

Liszt said Czerny was: "That good master to whom I owe both my talent and my success." When Beethoven met and heard the young Liszt perform in 1823,
the master kissed young Liszt on the forehead.

Moscheles wrote in 1827 of Liszt after hearing him at a London concert: "In its power and mastery of every difficulty Liszt's playing surpasses anything previously heard." In 1827 Liszt was only sixteen years only. And Beethoven died in 1827. So the musical baton had been passed to Liszt through Czerny.

By 1844 Liszt was universally regarded as the world's greatest pianist (at age 33). In 1845 the Portugal press described Liszt, then 34, as "The God of the piano." By 1847 Liszt had ended his famous virtuoso career and never again accepted a fee for any future concert.

In 1863, at age 57, Liszt entered Madonna del Rosario monastery in Rome, and Liszt played piano for the Pope. In 1868, 57-year-old Liszt became the first musical philanthropist in music history by performing a fundraising concert in Rome for the needy. Liszt performed for the Pope and dignitaries.

In 1875 Liszt, then age 64, was appointed President of the Budapest Music Academy. In 1886, the same year the Statue of Liberty was unveiled, Liszt, age 74, died of pneumonia.

Liszt is perhaps the most significant piano teacher and touring artist in history, for Liszt is the inventor of the piano recital and the piano master class. No pianist has had a bigger impact on modern piano playing and teaching than Franz Liszt (1811-1886). According to David Dubalt, in his monumental book "Reflections from the Piano", sums up how much of a visionary Liszt was: "Liszt possessed the most pianistic mind in history."

According to the Liszt Ferenc (Franz) Memorial Museum in Budapest, hungary: "Istvan Thoman and Arpad Szendy were the two most representative inheritors of the Liszt-tradition in Hungary." Istvan Thoman "carried the legacy of Liszt both in his personality and in his teaching methods."

Bela Bartok (1881-1945) studied with Istvan Thoman until 1903, and in 1907 Bartok replaced the retiring Istvan Thoman on the faculty at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. Bartok so admired Thoman that he dedicated his finest piano composition, Sonata (1926) to his piano teacher and mentor, Istvan Thoman.

GYORGY SEBOK

Gyorgy Sebok (1922-1999) studied with Bela Bartok, and in 1949 Sebok was named Professor of Music at the Bela Bartok Conservatory in Budapest. After the Hungarian revolt in 1956, Sebok settled in Paris. In 1957 the first of his many recordings won the esteemed Grand Prix du Disque.

Gyorgy Sebok received numerous honors, including the Hungarian government's Cross of Merit, La Medaille de la Ville de Paris, Echelon Vermeille, and the Kulturpreis des Staates Wallis, (Prix de Consecration). In 1996, the French government bestowed on him the decoration Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Sebok is famous the world over for his Liszt-tradition teaching and the many master classes he has given from Tokyo, Japan to Freiburg, Germany to Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Gyorgy Sebok recruited Craig LiaBraaten to study with him for five years at Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, during which time Sebok instilled in LiaBraaten the pure pianism of the Liszt approach ~ intensity without tension. When asked in a national interview how to produce emotional intensity without tension, Janos Starker has quoted Gyorgy Sebok as saying "Create excitement. Don't get excited." This is the Liszt philosophy, passed down from Liszt, through Istvan Thoman and Bela Bartok to Gyorgy Sebok. And for five intense years of one-on-one study, those principles of complete freedom at the piano were passed on to Craig LiaBraaten, who now passes them on to his students and proteges. Thus the Liszt tradition continues.

Many other successful students of Gyorgy Sebok, such as Rebecca Penneys at the Eastman School of Music, have similar respect for the legacy that Maestro Sebok has passed on to them. Lawrence Campbell, Professor of Piano at Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL has been quoted at saying: "Gyorgy Sebok inspired an even  greater technical development in my doctoral studies at Indiana University. Truly a keyboard wizard of the highest order, Sebok offered such uncanny insight into the physiology of technique that no student came away from his lessons without a powerfully enhanced grasp of keyboard technique."

Tannis Gibson, Professor of Piano at the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, who holds a Master of Music degree from Julliard has stated that the most influential person in her study of the piano is "Gyorgy Sebok, who was for many years a member of the piano faculty at Indiana University in Bloomington." Gibson explained that master classes with Sebok at Banff "were pivotal experiences that helped me put together valuable concepts regarding my playing. Sebok had a compelling way of communicating ideas that somehow reached down into the core of the issue being addressed. His observaions were insightful and brought to life through sparing, but colorful language. Sebok was, and continues to be, an inspiration."

The late Gyorgy Sebok was Distinguished Professor of Music at Indiana University from 1985-1999.  Sebok was born November 2, 1922 in Szeged, Hungary. He began his studies with Bartok at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest in 1938. In 1958 Sebok captured the Grand Prix du disque for his Erato recording of Franz Liszt.

Sebok left Europe in 1962 and followed his good friend and chamber music partner, Janos Starker, to America and Indiana University, where they both enjoyed long and successful teaching, performing and recording careers. Sebok died unexpectedly November 14, 1999 in his home in Bloomington, Indiana at the age of 77.

Gyorgy Sebok has left an immense and intense musical legacy. Sebok's life work now lives on through his students, like Craig LiaBraaten, Rebecca Penneys, Lawrence Campbell, Tannis Gibson, A. DeWayne Wee, Nancy Paddleford, Shigeo Niriki and others. As such, the Liszt legacy, the Bartok legacy lives on, too.

For More Information on Recording Artist Craig LiaBraaten
Please Investigate any of the links below:

National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist
MTNA National Collegiate Artist
"First Love" Release
Esther LiaBraaten
Grammy-Award Winner
"LiaBraaten Sings 10 Classis Hits"
"10 New Classroom Sing-Along Songs"
"WELCA Triennial National Convention Minneapolis Minnesota"
WELCA National Convention "Proclaim God's Peace"
$205,000 Donated to Youth
American Cancer Society
"Swinging Into Shape"

LiaBraaten: A World-class musician whose roots ~ and now his livelihood ~ are presently based on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota.