Norman Frauenheim

Norman A. Vilsack Frauenheim was an American concert pianist and music teacher.  For many decades he was acclaimed for his performances in America and Europe.  Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1897, he is also remembered by his many students for imparting the style of his own famous teachers and for outstanding guidance with their repertoires.  He attended Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh and Fordham University. During the 1920s he studied music in Paris before studying with Ignacy Jan Paderewski. He was also a student for many years of Zygmunt Stojowski.  Frauenheim made concert tours in France, Spain and Great Britain, including command performances for royalty. His made his American debut in 1926 at Town Hall in New York City. He continued to perform into the 1960s.

From the late 1920s to late 1930s he lived and performed in New York City and Pittsburgh. Frauenheim taught privately in New York City and in Pittsburgh.  He was a music professor at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) from 1926 to 1930.  He moved to Washington, DC in 1940.  Frauenheim was a well known piano teacher in the Washington metropolitan area for four decades and continued to teach until the year before his death. He died at age 92 in Pittsburgh and was buried in the Roman Catholic Calvary Cemetery.