Earl Wild marked his 90th birthday with a recital at Carnegie Hall in New York on Nov. 29, 2005. (Steve J. Sherman/Associated Press)Earl Wild marked his 90th birthday with a recital at Carnegie Hall in New York on Nov. 29, 2005. (Steve J. Sherman/Associated Press)

Earl Wild, a renowned U.S. classical pianist who also had a popular following because of his jazz and TV performances, has died. He was 94.

Wild died of congestive heart disease Saturday at his home in Palm Springs, Calif., according to longtime companion Michael Rolland Davis.

"He had a wonderfully full life and was still coaching pianists up until the last week of his life. He will be greatly missed," Davis said in a post on Wild's website.

Wild's memoirs are scheduled to be published in a few months by Carnegie Mellon Press.

His last public performance was in 2007 at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, where he was presented with the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences' Presidential Merit Award.

That Grammy tribute highlighted the many firsts Wild had in his career, including playing on the first commercial radio station in the U.S. in 1929, and making the first TV broadcast by a pianist in 1939 and first TV performance for soloist and orchestra of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in 1942. In 1987, he streamed the first piano performance over the internet.

Associated with Gershwin

He became a household name with his appearance and his performance of other Gershwin favourites, including his piano transcriptions of Porgy and Bess. He was a staff pianist for ABC until 1968 and created music for the Sid Caesar TV show.

But he was primarily a Romantic classical pianist, known for his interpretation of Rachmaninoff, Chopin and Liszt.

Born Nov. 15, 1915 in Pittsburgh, Wild was a child prodigy on the piano. He learned his craft from students of Liszt and Ravel and was awarded a scholarship to Pittsburgh's Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University.

He had large hands — an advantage for a pianist — as well as perfect pitch, and played for radio throughout his teen years.

In 1937, he joined the NBC network in New York as a staff pianist, which led to work with the NBC Symphony Orchestra under conductor Arturo Toscanini. This led to his premiere on TV in 1939 and his performance of Rhapsody in Blue in 1942. Wild had never before interpreted Gershwin, but soon added jazz to his repertoire and was associated with Gershwin by the American public.

During the Second World War, he served in the navy, playing flute as well as playing piano with the U.S. Navy Symphony Orchestra and giving solo piano recitals at the White House for President Franklin Roosevelt. He subsequently performed for five more presidents.

A pioneer in TV

After the war he joined newly formed ABC and began conducting, composing and playing for the new network. In 1962, ABC commissioned him to compose an Easter oratorio, Revelations, based on the visions of St. John the Divine.

He also composed a choral work based on an American Indian legend, The Turquoise Horse, along with piano variations on Camptown Races as well as much of the music for ABC productions.

At the same time, he maintained an international concert career, appearing on stages around the world.

He performed Shostakovich's Piano Trio in E minor on NBC radio, and premiered Paul Creston's Piano Concerto in 1949 and Marvin David Levy's Piano Concerto, a work specially composed for him, in 1970.

Wild's recorded works include 35 piano concertos, 26 chamber works and numerous solo piano pieces, among them the complete Chopin nocturnes.

In 1997, he won a Grammy Award for Earl Wild: The Romantic Master, devoted to virtuoso piano transcriptions of music by Handel, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Johann Strauss Jr. and Rachmaninoff.

He is survived by Davis, his companion of 38 years.

With files from The Associated Press