{"id":94562,"date":"2022-12-23T00:58:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T06:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=94562"},"modified":"2026-04-17T11:12:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:12:26","slug":"j-william-schleifer-md-performs-in-piano-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2022\/12\/23\/j-william-schleifer-md-performs-in-piano-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"J. William Schleifer, MD, performs in piano competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

J. William Schleifer, MD, an assistant professor in the UNMC Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, participated in the Eighth Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, on Oct. 12-18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out of 205 applicants, 39 amateur pianists were selected as competitors, and Dr. Schleifer was one of 15 selected as non-competing festival participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cParticipating in the Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition is something that has been an aspiration for many years,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a world-class event and truly a privilege to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the competition was postponed to October 2022. The event is for participants 35 and older who do not have music as their primary source of income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Schleifer performed a 15-minute program for the jury. He performed the piece “Apres une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi sonata” (loosely translated “After Reading Dante: Fantasy somewhat like a sonata”) by Franz Liszt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It\u2019s a piece that never gets boring, despite performing it many times over the years,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s special to me as a physician, because it depicts the life-and-death struggle that we encounter each day in medicine.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Schleifer began piano lessons at age 8. He competed in local and regional competitions in high school and college. In medical school at Medical College of Georgia, he was a frequent performer at the “Noon Arts” concerts every quarter. He continued to play piano as much as residency at University of Alabama-Birmingham and fellowship at Mayo Clinic would allow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He double majored in piano performance and biology, and he continues to make both science and music a priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTime is precious, and I am highly motivated to maximize the practice time that I have,\u201d he said. \u201cI am much more amazed now at what various composers overcame to leave us the works they did. Each piece is a gift and a monument to the human struggle against death and disease, which is what medicine is also about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Schleifer sees parallels between his music and medicine’s struggle against death and disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":94563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"27743,55255,24590,65450,55537,62656","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","topic-unmc-community","department-college-of-medicine","department-unmc-today-todays-headlines","author_override-megan-guenther-unmc-strategic-communications"],"yoast_head":"\nJ. 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