Austrian-American concert pianist.

Fannie Bloomfield (nee Fannie Blumenfeld) Zeisler, whose concert career spanned forty years, was born near Vienna in 1863. The Blumenfeld family in 1866 emigrated to the United States, finally settling in Chicago in 1870, where Fannie's father set up a dry-goods store. Always musically precocious, she began her piano studies at the age of seven. Her talent proved so impressive, and being unhappy in school because of poor health and her Jewish background, at fifteen Fannie Blumenfeld went with her mother to Vienna for five years of study with the great piano pedagogue, Theodor Leschetizky.

In 1883, using the name Bloomfield, Fannie began building her reputation as a concert pianist by touring American cities. In 1885 she married Sigmund Zeisler, a politically active lawyer who would serve as associate defense counsel for the Chicago anarchists following the Haymarket riot of 1886. Though happy in her marriage as wife and mother of three sons and despite continuing poor health, Fannie Zeisler did not choose to give up her highly successful professional life. Besides years of touring both in the United States and Europe, she maintained a commitment to teaching and to various professional associations. Although she referred to herself as Fannie Zeisler, she was also known as Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler.

In 1893, Zeisler and Paderewski were solo artists at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Following a triumph there, she toured German cities, earning great acclaim from reviewers who pronounced her a first-rank performing pianist. By the season of 1901-1902 Zeisler was making over forty appearances, a schedule which finally took its toll on her always frail health. After several seasons in retirement, she returned to touring, first in American cities and then again in Europe in 1912. A triumphant Golden Jubilee celebrating her very first public appearance took place in 1925, and this marked the end of Zeisler's active, brilliant musical career.

The Zeislers had three sons: Leonard, Paul and Ernest. Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler died in 1927, honored as an important force in the development of music in Chicago.

Lawyer.

Sigmund Zeisler was born in Bielitz, Austrian Silesia in 1860. He emigrated to Chicago in 1883, and in 1884 earned his LLB at Northwestern University, after which he practiced law in Chicago until his retirement. In 1885 he married Fannie Bloomfield, the successful concert pianist.

Associate counsel for the defense in Anarchist cases, 1886-1887, Zeisler was a liberal and active member of many associations including the American Anti-Imperialist League, the Municipal Voters' League, and the Civil Service Reform Association. Besides being a writer and popular lecturer on legal topics, Zeisler was also associated with a number of Chicago social clubs such as the Chicago Literary Club, The Little Room, Book and Play and the Cliff Dwellers.

The Zeislers had three sons, Leonard, Paul and Ernest. After Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler's death, Zeisler married Amelia Spellman in 1930. He died in 1931.