(see sidebar).

"It's a bit of a gas," he said of the Oscar nomination.

As for his ability to play with two hands: "Every performance is a celebration," he said. "It's a state of ecstasy, of grace."

Speaking by telephone, the Baltimore-based pianist is less emotional than jovial, preferring to crack jokes and to tell pithy stories than to dwell on his ailment. With relish, he described how his fiercely ambitious mother, a Polish immigrant, educated herself, in part, by listening to classical music, which "to her represented the finer aspects of life."

"I became a [musician] because she gave me two choices: to either become the first Jewish president of the United States or a great concert pianist," he added.

Fortunately the musical option jibed with Fleischer's own desire to play thepiano. He was fascinated by his older brother's lessons on the family's boxy, used upright, and he began his own studies at age 4. He said he survived his first recital, at 8, despite his mother's particular form of mishegoss (craziness).

"As I walked from the wings, she snatched my glasses off my face, because glasses were a sign of imperfection," he recalled with a laugh. "I was shocked, but I didn't have time to do anything about it, because I was so involved with trying to find the piano ahead of me."

Even so, the boy's talent caught the eye of renowned teacher Artur Schnabel, and the following summer Fleischer found himself living and studying with Schnabel at his villa on Lake Como in Italy. Those lessons came to