Alfred Nieman

Who was Alfred Nieman?

Alfred Nieman was a British pianist and composer.

Born in the East End of London in 1914 to Polish immigrant parents, Alfred Nieman was playing piano for the silent cinema by the age of fourteen. His talent as a pianist was spotted and the result was that he won a piano scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. In the 1930s he edited a six penny magazine "The Student".

Before World War II, he had a very successful piano duo with his contemporary Cimbro Martin called "Merlin and Martyn". During the war the duo replaced Rawicz and Landauer at their engagements when this much admired duo was interned. While their success was interrupted by the war and, and, as conscientious objectors the duo became firemen throughout the London Blitz, Merlin and Martyn was a regular act at The Dorchester Hotel in London.

After the war he picked up the threads of his career by becoming a BBC "house" pianist and was assigned tasks which required him on one occasion to accompany Noël Coward and on another to stand in for the soloist and broadcast a piano concerto at very short notice.