Norman Shetler
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Norman Shetler (16 June 1931 – 25 June 2024) was an American-born pianist, puppeteer, puppet constructor and piano professor who lived most of his adult life in Austria.
Norman Shetler was born in Dubuque, Iowa, on 16 June 1931.[1][2]
While a student in Vienna, the Soviet Union funded his participation in the first Tchaikovsky Competition.[3] There he met Van Cliburn. He also dreamed of studying with the Soviet virtuoso Sviatoslav Richter.[importance?]
In 1955 he moved to Vienna, Austria, where he studied piano[where?], graduating in 1959. In the same year, he was awarded a second prize at the ARD International Music Competition. He specialized in accompanying singers,[4] having worked with Anneliese Rothenberger, Peter Schreier,[5][6] Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau,[7] Brigitte Fassbaender, Hermann Prey, Margaret Price and Thomas Quasthoff,[8] and also with instrumentalists such as violinist Nathan Milstein and cellist Heinrich Schiff. Despite specializing in accompanying, he was also a soloist.[9][10] He was recorded over 70 times.[citation needed]
Between 1983 and 1991, Shetler taught Piano and Lied Accompaniment at the Würzburg School of Music and Drama.[2] Beginning in 1992, he was a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He also taught masterclasses, particularly at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg.[11][12][13]
Shetler was also a puppet maker and puppeteer beginning no later than 1985.[14] His show "Musical Puppet Cabaret" toured internationally, in festivals and on television.[15][16][17]
Shetler died on 25 June 2024, at the age of 93.[18]
