The Kenneth Manzer Scholarship

L. KENNETH MANZER – DECEMBER 2ND , 1931 – JANUARY 18TH , 2000

Ken Manzer biography taken from the program for the Piano Dedication Concert, December 6th, 1987

_"Mr. Manzer is well known at Westfield State College as pianist, accompanist, faculty member, and director of the Westfield State Jazz Singers. His appearances in the Springfield area have won brilliant critical acclaim, especially his performances with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra under both Robert Gutter and Arthur Fiedler. He has also played with the Symphony for the Summer Pops Series in Stanley Park and twice at Westfield State College. _

A native of Massachusetts, he began playing piano at the age of three, commencing serious study at the age of six. High school honors and scholarships led to a full scholarship at Boston University where he studied piano with the late Alfredo Fondacaro. He made the First Dean’s list all four years there, also gaining experience in accompanying with Sarah Caldwell’s Opera Workshop and the University Chorus. Later he went to New York where he studied piano with Leland Thompson, an assistant to Madame Rosina Lhevinne.

For eleven years Mr. Manzer was pianist-in-residence at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, where he also was arranger and accompanist for the Institute Glee Club and coached soloists and a specialty group called “The Rocks.” At the same time he performed as a recitalist and accompanist for concert singers in New York City, was active as a choral arranger, assisted voice teacher Winifred Cecil, and was coach-accompanist for a lecturerecital series in Town Hall entitled “Joy of Singing.” Concurrently he coached singers privately in his own New York studio, accompanied concert tours for the National Music League, directed three off-Broadway musicals, and composed music for original reviews.

Mr. Manzer has given numerous recitals in the New England area, including fifteen appearances at the Isabella Stewart Garner Museum and solo performances at the Piano Fair in Boston’s Symphony Hall. He performed Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto with the Boston Pops Orchestra under the late Arthur Fiedler and has been guest soloist with the Brockton Orchestral Society and the Boston University Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra. In 1965 he played in recitals in Orleans, MA which introduced the Yamaha piano. Equally at home in popular as well as concert music, he is a favorite performer on Cape Cod, regaling overflow audiences by mingling sparkling arrangements of pop tunes between fine interpretations of the classics."