Artist description A composer and pianist living and working in Pittsburgh, PA.

Music Style contemporary classical concert music

Musical Influences Bartok, Bach, Martinu, Prokofieff, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, McKinley, Brahms

Similar Artists Bartok, Bach, Martinu, Prokofieff, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, McKinley, Brahms

Artist History Francis E. Fairman III was born in Annapolis, Maryland in 1923. He grew up in a musical family where his father played the violin, his mother piano, his brother trumpet, and his sister violin. Fairman took his first piano lesson in Pittsburgh at age 5 and at age 7 was able to sight read Beethoven’s Sonata “Pathetique” (Op. 13). At age 10 his family moved to Philadelphia where he continued his piano lessons at the Hamilton School of Music under Gertrude Hamilton. At age 16 he performed the Mendelssohn Concerto in G Minor with the Curtis Institute for Music Orchestra.Fairman also took lessons on trumpet for two years and then the bassoon under Mr. Gruener of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He performed on the bassoon and saxophone in school orchestras and bands and between 1939 and 1942, Fairman and his brother regularly played in a dance band. His musical pursuit was interrupted when he did a three-year tour of duty in the Navy during World War II and later his interests were diverted to engineering. A graduate of Haverford College and the California Institute of Technology, he worked for the General Electric Co. and Westinghouse Electric for 45 years. During this time he continued his music as a serious hobby.Since his retirement in 1993, he has devoted himself full time to music and to the craft of composition. Since 1995 he has been working with composer William Thomas McKinley who has become a mentor. Under McKinley’s guide, Fairman has begun writing more extended compositions for orchestra and has recently had a clarinet concerto recorded with the Richard Stoltzman and the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra. These recording will eventually be released as part of the MMC Recordings American music series.

Instruments piano

Location Pittsburgh, PA - USA

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