Menahem Pressler

As a soloist and chamber musician, Menahem Pressler is one of the most highly admired performers worldwide, and much in demand as a teacher. Even at the age of 93, the founder of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio is still involved in an ongoing search to uncover the “divine truth” contained in every musical composition.

Born in Madgeburg, Pressler had to flee Germany and emigrated to Israel in 1939, where he received most of his musical training. His artistic career began in the US when he won First Prize at the International Debussy Competition in San Francisco at the age of seventeen. Pressler’s début with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Eugene Ormandy was so successful that a number of appearances with the greatest orchestras in North America and Europe soon followed. In a series of extended tours, Pressler performed in all the major music venues of the world. Apart from having made over 50 LP/CD recordings with the Beaux Arts Trio, Pressler has also released over 30 recordings as soloist, performing works from Bach and Beethoven to Ben Haim. When the “venerable piano colossus” is not on tour or giving masterclasses, he is practicing and studying in his office studio at Indiana University in Bloomington. In 2005, German President Horst Köhler awarded him the German First Class Cross of Merit in Magdeburg, of which he was named Honorary Citizen on the occasion of a gala recital in 2009. Since then, Pressler has returned on a regular basis to perform with the Magdeburg Philharmonic. He was most recently invited to perform in the 4th Soloist Concert of the orchestra’s 2016/2017 season, and celebrated his 93rd birthday in his home town.