Most legends have a great back story. Johns Hopkins Alumni Association Distinguished Alumna Award recipient Nelita True (DMA ’76, Piano), the world-renowned pianist and teacher and professor emerita of piano at the Eastman School of Music, is no different.
At age 7, True trudged alone through deep snowdrifts for early morning piano lessons in Bozeman, Montana. When she was 17, she made her debut with the Chicago Symphony. After earning a BA and MA, Phi Beta Kappa, at the University of Michigan, she was awarded a three-year fellowship to study at Juilliard.
It was in New York, while sitting in the cheap seats at Carnegie Hall, that she first heard Leon Fleisher play. A few weeks later, True attended another Fleisher concert and had a life-changing experience. In a 2010 interview with Clavier Companion, she recalls that she “had never heard playing like that … it wasn’t just the captivating spontaneity of his playing, but also the profound intellect backing it up.”
When it came time to decide where to pursue her doctorate, True told her brother, who was also a musician, that she would only seek a degree if Fleisher was teaching it. After a private audition with Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory, she was accepted on the spot — which she deferred for a year so she could accept a Fulbright grant to study in Paris with the legendary Nadia Boulanger. (Back-story footnote: Preparatory alumnus Philip Glass was in her Fulbright class; André Watts (AD ’72, Piano), her classmate at Peabody.)
Throughout her remarkable career, True thrilled audiences around the world with her performances, and she made more than 100 recordings. She won numerous awards, including the Certificate of Merit by the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, the Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching at Eastman, the 2002 Achievement Award from the Music Teachers National Association, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from National Keyboard Pedagogy Conference (USA).
In addition to her renown as a performer, True is a legendary teacher. At the Eastman School of Music, where her colleagues included her late husband, the international concert pianist Fernando Laires, her students won an unprecedented five first prizes in national MTNA competitions. Now retired, True also was a distinguished professor at the University of Maryland, visiting professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, and per- formed and conducted 20-plus recitals and master classes in China.
What her former students value most is her unique combination of talent, pedagogy, humor, and humanity — the same qualities she values in the legends who shaped her career.
