Leon Fleisher (born July 23, 1928) is an American pianist and conductor.\r He was born in San Francisco, where he started studying the piano at age 4. He made his public debut at age 8 and played with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Monteux at 16; Monteux famously called him \\"the pianistic find of the century.\\" He became one of the few child virtuosos to be accepted for study with Artur Schnabel, and also studied with Maria Curcio, the last and favourite pupil of Schnabel.[\r