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MENAHEM PRESSLER 25
Menahem Pressler
Born in Magdeburg on 16 December 1923, Menahem Pressler fled Nazi Germany in
1938. Itwas in Israel,where hewas raised, that he receivedmost of his training,with
the pianists Eliahu Rudiakov and Leo Kestenberg, a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni, followed
by lessonswithEduardSteuermann, alsoaBusoni disciple, in theUnitedStates.
His musical learning and his profound knowledge of the piano and chamber music
have earned him an undisputed reputation.
MenahemPressler’s international fame began to develop after he won first prize at
the Debussy Piano Competition in San Francisco in 1946, immediately followed by
his American debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Eugene
Ormandy. In 1955, the Berkshire Music Festival witnessed the debut of the Beaux
Arts Trio, which was to become a legendary group, acclaimed all over the world for
fifty-three years.
He gives masterclasses in Germany, France, Canada, Argentina and Brazil, and is
a jury member at the Santander, Van Cliburn and Queen Elisabeth competitions.
Appointed Distinguished Professor by Indiana University in Bloomington,
Menahem Pressler is now an honorary professor there. In 1998 he received a
Lifetime Achievement Award from
Gramophone
magazine and an Ehrenurkunde
award fromGerman music critics to mark forty years spent in the service of music.
In May 2000 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Recently, the French government decorated him with the rank of Commandeur
in the Ordre des Arts et Lettres, while the German government awarded him the
Deutsches Bundesverdienstkreuz in recognition of his entire career and conferred
German citizenship on him in September 2012.