Gloria S. Greenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York on February 15, 1926 to Isaac (Izzy) and Sophie Greenberg. She spent her early childhood at the height of the Great Depression, but Izzy, an enterprising Russian immigrant, managed to keep his family fed and clothed, even arranging music lessons for both his children. 

Gloria began studying piano at age 5 and practiced 6-8 hours a day, despite her parents begging her to go outside and play.  She spent summers in the Borscht Belt singing and accompanying herself on popular songs. However, her deepest love was classical music.  At age 11 she won a gold metal at an Amateur Musicians Contest from New York City Department of Parks .

Gloria’s younger brother Harold began studying violin with Nathan Hieger, a brilliant young student of Reuven Heifetz (father of world-famous violinist Jascha Heifetz). Gloria’s father Isaac became so enamored of Nathan that he arranged an introduction to his precocious daughter. He brought Gloria to Nathan’s family home and asked her to play something. She spun off the Mendelssohn Concerto in G Minor without effort. Nathan then asked Gloria if she knew Beethoven’s C Minor Piano and Violin Sonata. “No,” she replied, “but I’ll sight-read it.” After they played the piece, he was so stunned that she could sight-read so flawlessly that he kissed her on the cheek impulsively. Gloria and Nathan continued meeting at their respective family homes to play violin and piano sonatas together. One afternoon, after playing the 2nd movement of the Bach Concerto for Violin in E Major, they exchanged their first grown-up kiss.

During her teens, Gloria worked at Juilliard School as an accompanist, hoping to earn a full scholarship after high school. After graduating high school, she continued piano studies and taught privately, while preparing a concert-length program of solo piano works. At 19, on October 7, 1945, Gloria gave her debut recital at New York Times Hall (now the Hayes Theater) to favorable notice. The New York Times declared she “showed much promise of fine things to come” and “revealed unusual natural talent.” The Jewish Journal reported that she played Chopin pieces “with the poetry inherent in them and with the eloquence that they possess.”

During the early 40s, the Nazi regime took hold in Europe, making American Jews very anxious. Many had left relatives behind in the “old country.” Nathan enlisted in the Army, carrying his violin from Italy to Algiers during two tours of duty over the course of four years. Gloria was constantly worried for his safety. The two corresponded during his service, and even though he was concerned about their age difference, things were getting more serious between them. 

When Nathan returned from active duty in 1945, he procured a seat in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Following a short engagement, Gloria and Nathan were married on March 31, 1945 in New York City.

A few years before the birth of their first child Joanie in 1949, Nathan was hired by Maestro Fritz Reiner and the Pittsburgh Symphony. The Hiegers relocated to Pittsburgh. While a young mother, Gloria continued to distinguish herself as a professional musician in the burgeoning environment of Pittsburgh. She served as staff pianist for the Pittsburgh Symphony and as accompanist for the then-fledgling Pittsburgh Opera company, playing for such productions as Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Gian Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Kurt Weill's Down in the Valley, as well as co-hosting string quartet evenings in her home.  She was featured in Ralph Lewando’s regular column, “Who’s Who in Pittsburgh Musical Circles” in The Pittsburgh Press, January 9, 1949.

In 1957, after Gloria and Nathan's second child Carl was born, the entire family, including Gloria's parents, moved out West at the urging of Gloria’s brother Harold. Harold had recently married and was extremely optimistic about music opportunities in a burgeoning Southern California.

Because the Los Angeles Philharmonic was in transition after Dorothy Chandler took over the board of directors, there were no unfilled positions in the orchestra. Nathan and Gloria developed relationships on a part-time basis with the Pasadena Symphony Association and the San Gabriel Symphony Orchestra under Eugene Ober.

Gloria and Nathan loved the West coast climate and continued to live in Los Angeles county for over sixty years. Their third child, Robert (Bobby) was born in 1962. Two weeks after his birth, Gloria played in Karl Orff's Carmina Burana with the San Gabriel Symphony.

To support their family, Gloria and Nathan both took full-time positions in the Social Services system of Los Angeles County.  Gloria continued to play professionally, as well as teach and vocal coach. She was staff accompanist for ANTA Academy West; staff pianist for years at Los Feliz Cultural Center in Los Angeles, and accompaniest to her son Carl, who was hired to be the cantor at Temple Shalom in West Covina shortly after his Bar Mitzvah. She also drove her children to music lessons and their own rehearsals in local theatre.

After the Los Feliz Cultural Center was demolished by a fire,  Gloria, who had given so much of her energy there, performed a concert to benefit its rebuilding. Her ambitious recital took place on July 26, 1986 at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre. Her Certificate of Appreciation from Mayor Eric Garcetti and Councilmember Mitch O'Connell, 13th District which stated: “You truly are an Angel in the City of Angels!”

When in her 60s, Gloria enrolled in the Music Department at Los Angeles City College and studied piano under Dr. Howard Barr. She concertized extensively at LACC and in private concerts at Brand Library, Barnsdall Park and Steinway Hall.

In 1996, Gloria appeared briefly, but significantly, in the film Multiplicity with Michael Keaton. She was the rehearsal pianist for a ballet class, and the playing on the film’s soundtrack is not dubbed, but her playing live.

Once their children left the nest, Gloria and Nathan retired and began to enjoy their lives as a couple again. She and Nathan flew to Hawaii for a second honeymoon...not once, but twice! They visited their son Carl in Zürich, Switzerland, where he sings at the Opernhaus Zürich and made side trips to Germany, Luxembourg and France. And on the trip of a lifetime, they chaperoned Alice Phu, the daughter of a friend, to China to participate an international piano contest, and attended the young people’s competition to hear phenomenal young pianists play. The two weeks they spent in China were the most memorable of Gloria's life, she said.

After her beloved Nathan passed in 2013, Gloria spent the next two years in California enjoying frequent visits from her East-Coast children, especially her daughter Joanie, who lived with her for part of 2014 and 2015. In 2015 she moved to Manchester, New Jersey to be closer to Bobby and Joanie in New York City, and to her Cousin Florence, a lifelong friend and now neighbor.

During the last nearly-eight years of her life, Joanie and Bobby were her caregivers, with the help of several professionals who became family to Gloria. Birthday parties, visits from lifelong friends Lori and Barbara, trips to New York to see Broadway shows, provided her with great pleasure. Her niece Suzette and friend Arielle visited her from California, and Carl's niece through marriage, Ruby, visited from the UK.

And of course, visits from Carl and his wife Annie when he was on vacation from the opera, were of deepest meaning. These moments of love and continuity provided Gloria with great joy in her later years. Joanie, Bobby and Gloria all treasured this time in each other’s company.