Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

Georgia O’Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz

They were married but also artistically intertwined.

There are many more: Rodin and Camille Claudel, Van Gogh and Gauguin for a period

I think you mean one on one- not groups that hung out together and exchanged ideas and produced manifestos etc.. This would be another whole topic.

For a profile of Barrueco, I attended a summer master class. A student would take the stage and play before an audience of the other students, while Barrueco sat beside him and listened. After one kid finished, Barrueco asked him, “What’s the musical idea behind the first note?” Poor kid probably always thought the first note was simply what you needed to get to the second note. Barrueco’s point was that every note has to be played with intent and imbued with meaning, meaning that the musician has carefully thought about. This has been had significant influence on my writing, and what I teach my graduate students. Every word, every sentence has to accomplish something, and the writer has to know what it is. (My Barrueco story is online at http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0901web/gospel.html.)

In the case of Leon Fleisher, the influence has been different, more of attitude and philosophy. Fleisher was one of the world’s great pianists when an injury rendered his right hand all but useless. What does an artist do when he can’t do the one thing to which he wants to devote his life? In Fleisher’s case, he because a great teacher, and a conductor. And he never quit trying to restore his hand, which, after more than 30 years, he seems to have done. I’ve heard him play with two hands again and it’s marvelous. His example is one of extraordinary grace and determination. (My Fleisher profile is, unfortunately, not online.)