Buried: Oakland Cemetery, Sag Harbor, Suffolk County, New York, USA
Buried alongside: Robert Fizdale
Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale were an American two-piano ensemble. Gold and Fizdale met during their student years at the Juilliard School. In 1944, the pianists formed a duo that survived until their retirement in 1982, based around their common interests of music, travel and cooking. It has often been said that Gold and Fizdale revolutionized the art of performing as a two-piano duo. They did commission and première many of the most important works for two-piano ensemble in the second half of the 20th century, including works by John Cage (A Book of Music (1944) which is one of Cage's earliest experiments in using the prepared Piano), Paul Bowles, Virgil Thomson, Ned Rorem and many other important American Composers. They were fixtures in New York's artistic community, being friends with literary and cultural figures such as Truman Capote, James Schuyler, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, among others. In 1984 they published The Gold and Fizdale Cookbook, which is dedicated to their friend George Balanchine, "In whose kitchen we spent many happy hours...“ They are buried together at Oakland Cemetery, Sag Harbor, New York.
Together from (before) 1944 to 1990: 46 years.
Arthur Gold (February 6, 1917 – January 3, 1990)
Robert Fizdale (April 12, 1920 – December 6, 1995)
Days of Love edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
ISBN-10: 1500563323
Release Date: September 21, 2014
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Historic Villa with sea views in Grasse, French Riviera, France, for sale for €2,490,000
Address: 06130 Grasse, France (43.66015, 6.92649)
Type: Private Property
Place
Built in the late XIX century
A beautiful property set in the hills of the French Riviera overlooking the Mediterranean coastline with views over the entire bay of Cannes and eastwards over the countryside. The villa was home to one of America's most famous painters, the impressionist Mary Cassat, from Pennsylvania. She called this historic Belle Epoque villa home in the early part of the 1900's and hosted some of the world's most renowned artists of the time including Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. After Cassat's tenure as owner, the villa was purchased by the famous composer and harpist Germaine Tailleferre and the property was known to be frequented and also used as a performing venue by her group "Les Six" of which she was the only female member. Prior to these two famous artists ownership, the villa was home to one of Grasse's perfume producers. Today the villa stands in all of its former and present glory having been renovated and continuously lived in throughout the years. The grounds around the home total 3,000 m2 and the homes interior of 320 m2 includes 5 bedrooms on the upper floors with a main living floor including, grand entrance hall, living room, lounge, dining room, kitchen, morning room, office, gym, "morrocan style" courtyard and below a full basement. Outdoors there is a sizeable swimming pool compete with fully equipped pool house inclusive of covered lounge/dining, summer kitchen and bathroom. The garden itself is lush and mature with local flower and fauna and provides various points for outdoor leisure. In the north eastern corner of the garden is a studio style open space cottage ready to be kitted out and connected to electrics and plumbing.
Life
Who: Arthur Gold (February 6, 1917 – January 3, 1990) and Robert Fizdale (April 12, 1920 – December 6, 1995.)
Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale were an American two-piano ensemble; they were also authors and television cooking show hosts. Gold and Fizdale met during their student years at the Juilliard School. In 1944, they formed a lifelong gay partnership based around their common interests of music (forming one of the most important piano duos of the XX century), travel and cooking. They were fixtures in New York's artistic community, being friends with literary and cultural figures such as Truman Capote, James Schuyler, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, among others. In 1948, they were one of the wave of American artists, musicians and writers who took advantage of the first possibility since the end of WWII to freely travel in Europe. "The Boys,” as they were called by their friends, arrived in Paris with a letter of introduction from Marcelle de Manziarly to Germaine Tailleferre of “Les six” who invited them to a lunch with Francis Poulenc and Georges Auric. This lunch ended with Auric and Tailleferre taking the score of Thomson's "The Mother of Us All,” which Thomson had given as a gift, turning it upside down on the piano and having Poulenc singing all of the roles (including Susan B. Anthony) in nonsense English syllables which were supposedly an imitation of Gertrude Stein's Libretto while Tailleferre and Auric improvised a four-hands version of Thomson's score. After this memorable day, Tailleferre invited the couple to her home in Grasse to spend two months while she was writing her ballet Paris-Magie and her opera “Il était Un Petit Navire.” She wrote two-piano versions of both works and gave them to the duo as a gift. These manuscripts were later donated to the Library of Congress after the death of Robert Fizdale. Tailleferre later dedicated two other works to Gold and Fizdale: her “Toccata for Two Pianos” and her “Sonata for Two Pianos.” Francis Poulenc also wrote his own “Sonata for Two Pianos” for "the Boyz" (as he called them), a commission which was paid by their mutual friend the American Soprano and arts patron Alice Swanson Esty, according to Poulenc's correspondence. The duo also recorded a number of recordings featuring works by “Les six,” Vittorio Rieti, and other composers, as well as a series of Concerto recordings with Leonard Bernstein and The New York Philharmonic, including the Poulenc Concerto for Two Pianos, The Mozart Two Piano Concerto and Saint-Saëns's "Carnival of the Animals.”Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale are buried together at Oakland Cemetery, Sag Harbor, New York.
Queer Places, Vol. 3 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532906695
ISBN-10: 1532906692
Release Date: July 24, 2016
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Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale are buried together at Oakland Cemetery, Sag Harbor.
Address: 62-298 Suffolk St, Sag Harbor, NY 11963, USA (40.99239, -72.29374)
Type: Cemetery (open to publich)
National Register of Historic Places: Sag Harbor Village District (Roughly bounded by Sag Harbor, Rysam, Hamilton, Marsden, Main and Long Island Ave.), 73001274, 1973 & (Roughly bounded by Sag Harbor, Bay, Eastville, Grand, Joel'sLn., Middle Line Hwy., Main, Glover and Long Island), 94000400, 1994
Place
Oakland Cemetery is a public, not-for-profit cemetery located in the village Sag Harbor, New York. It was founded in 1840 and currently sits on 26 acres bounded by Jermain Ave to the north, Suffolk St to the east, and Joels Ln to the west. It is the permanent resting place of over 4,000 people, including more XVIII and XIX century sea captains than in any other Long Island cemetery. It was incorporated in 1884. Prior to the opening of Oakland Cemetery in 1840, Sag Harbor’s most notable cemetery was the Old Burial Ground, opened in 1767 on the corner of Union and Madison Streets next to the First Presbyterian Church. At total of 17 veterans of the American Revolution and one representative to the New York Provincial Congress of 1775 are buried there. Unfortunately, years of neglect left the Old Burial Ground in a state of disrepair. In 1840 Oakland Cemetery was founded, covering just 4 acres, enclosed with stone posts and chestnut pickets. One hundred thirty nine graves from the Old Burial Ground were moved to Oakland Cemetery, including Ebenezer Sage and Captain David Hand and his five wives. During the mid-1800’s, in the center of the property which is now Oakland Cemetery, sat of a group of buildings known as Oakland Works. John Sherry had them built in 1850 to house his brass foundry. He soon took on a partner, Ephraim N. Byram, a clock maker and astronomer who was later buried in the cemetery. They enlarged the building to make room for Byram’s clock manufactory and named the place the Oakland Brass Foundry and Clock Works. The business was in operation for 12 years. In 1863 the building was leased to Abraham DeBevoise and B. & F. Lyon for use as a stocking factory. In 1865 a second building and another bleach house were added to the property. This business closed after three years. Over the next ten years two other industries occupied the Oakland Works. First, a barrel-head and stave factory owned by George Bush; then, a Morrocco leather business owned by Morgan Topping. Both proved unsuccessful. A final attempt to operate a business on the site was made in 1880 when Edward Chapman Rogers opened the Oakland Hat Manufactory. This venture also failed. In 1882, unoccupied for almost two years, the old wooden structures caught fire and burned to the ground. The site was purchased by Joseph Fahys and Stephen French and donated to the cemetery. In September, 1884 the Oakland Cemetery Association purchased the remaining Oakland Works property for $400, adding a third section and extending the cemetery east to its present boundary at Suffolk St for a total of ten acres. In October, 1903 the Ladies Village Improvement Society unveiled a new memorial gate. The Broken Mast Monument in Oakland Cemetery, sculpted by Robert Eberhard Launitz, commemorates those "Who periled their lives in a daring profession and perished in actual encounter with the monsters of the deep."
Notable queer burials at Oakland Cemetery:
• George Balanchine (1904-1983), ballet choreographer and co-founder of the New York City Ballet.
• Arthur Gold (February 6, 1917 – January 3, 1990) and Robert Fizdale (April 12, 1920 –December 6, 1995) were a two-piano ensemble; they were also authors and television cooking show hosts. Gold and Fizdale met during their student years at the Juilliard School. They formed a lifelong gay partnership and shared interests in music (forming one of the most important piano duos of the XX century), travel, and cooking. Works written for Gold and Fizdale: Paul Bowles, "Concerto for Two Pianos” (1946–47), "Sonata for Two Pianos” (1947), "Night Waltz for Two Pianos” (1949), "A Picnic Cantata for Two Pianos” (1953); John Cage, "A Book of Music for Two Pianos”; Francis Poulenc, “L’embarquement pour Cythère” (1951), “Sonate for Two Pianos” (1952-53), “Elegy for Two Pianos” (1959); Germaine Tailleferre, “Il était un Petit Navire Suite for Two Pianos,” “Paris-Magie version for Two Pianos,” “Toccata for Two Pianos,” “Sonata for Two Pianos”; Samuel Barber, “Souvenirs,” Op. 28.
Queer Places, Vol. 1 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532901904
ISBN-10: 1532901909
Release Date: July 24, 2016
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