"I was intoxicated by the joy I got from the great virtuoso's playing", Liberace said later. At the age of eight, he actually met Paderewski backstage after a concert at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee. He studied the technique of the Polish pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski. By the age of seven, he was capable of memorizing difficult pieces. Liberace's prodigious talent was evident from his early years. While Sam took his children to concerts to further expose them to music, he was also a taskmaster demanding high standards from the children in both practice and performance. Liberace began playing the piano at the age of four. Liberace later stated, "My dad's love and respect for music created in him a deep determination to give as his legacy to the world, a family of musicians dedicated to the advancement of the art." While Sam encouraged music in his family, his wife, Frances (despite having been a concert pianist before her marriage), believed music lessons and a record player to be unaffordable luxuries. Liberace's father played the French horn in bands and cinemas but often worked as a factory worker or laborer. He had three surviving siblings: a brother George (who was a violinist), a sister Angelina, and younger brother Rudy (Rudolph Valentino Liberace, named after the actor due to his mother's interest in show business). Liberace had an identical twin who died at birth. His mother, Franciszka Zuchowska (1892–1980), was Polish. His father, Salvatore ("Sam") Liberace (1885–1977), was an immigrant from Formia in the Lazio region of central Italy. Władziu Valentino Liberace (known as "Lee" to his friends and "Walter" to family) was born in West Allis, Wisconsin, on May 16, 1919.
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