Composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski is dead at 83 Frederic Rzewski in 2011 (Photo credit–Christian Mondrup) Rzewski, who taught at the Royal Academy of Music in Liège, Belgium from 1977 until his death, is best known for his set of variations for solo piano, Be Defeated, based on a protest song, written by Chilean composer Sergio Ortega, that became inseparable from the resistance of the working class to the coup that overthrew Salvador Allende and installed fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1973. The massive set of 36 variations, spanning nearly an hour in length, was premiered by and created for the pianist Ursula Oppens in 1976, at a series of concerts in Washington D.C. to mark the bicentennial of the United States. It was often performed by Rzewski himself, and a 2005 recital by him was reviewed in the WSWS.