Menahem Pressler

PIANO

Recognized by the French and German governments with the highest honors those countries award to civilians, Menahem Pressler was made a Commander of Arts and Letters by France, and from Germany received the Federal Cross of Merit. A founding member and the pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio for all of its 51 years, he has established himself among the world’s most distinguished and honored musicians, with a career that spans more than six decades. Both an outstanding chamber and solo performer, Mr. Pressler’s talents have brought him to all of the world’s major music venues. His overwhelming knowledge of piano and chamber music literature have also gained him an international reputation as a remarkable teacher. 

Born in Magdeburg, Germany, in 1923, Menahem Pressler received most of his musical training in Israel, to which his family, fleeing the Nazis, immigrated in 1939. His life has always been completely devoted to his music: when not on tour or teaching master classes, Pressler can be found in his studio at Indiana University in Bloomington, where he holds the rank of Distinguished Professor. He holds honorary doctorate degrees from both the University of Nebraska and the University of Kansas. In 1994, Mr. Pressler was honored with Chamber Music America’s Distinguished Service Award and in 1998 he received the prestigious Gramophone Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Pressler was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in October 2000, and has received numerous awards, including England's Record of the Year Award, four Grammy nominations, Musical America's Ensemble of the Year in 1997 with the Beaux Arts Trio, and the German Recording Award. He was a winner of the Debussy Competition in San Francisco and has served as a juror for the Van Cliburn, Queen Elisabeth, and Naumburg Foundation Competitions. In 2011 he was named the winner of the esteemed International Classical Music Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award.

Menahem Pressler’s career was launched when he won first prize at the Debussy International Piano Competition in San Francisco in 1946. This was followed by his successful American debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Eugene Ormandy, and appearances with the New York, Washington, Cleveland, Chicago, Pittsburgh, London, and Paris Symphony Orchestras followed.  Since then, Pressler’s extensive tours of North America and Europe have included performances with the orchestras of New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Dallas, San Francisco, London, Paris, Brussels, Oslo, Helsinki, and countless others.

In 1955 he co-founded the Beaux Arts Trio with Daniel Guillet and Bernard Greenhouse.  It is considered one of the most enduring and widely acclaimed chamber music ensembles, and has been credited with giving rise to the enormous popularity of the piano trio repertoire.  The Trio had a worldwide schedule of over 100 concerts per year, and recorded and re-recorded almost the entire piano chamber music literature. The Trio had its final performance at Tanglewood – where the Trio had its debut in 1955 – on August 21, 2008.

Menahem Pressler’s other chamber music collaborations have included multiple performances with the Juilliard, Emerson, Pacifica, American, Guarneri, and Cleveland Quartets. In addition to over fifty recordings with the Beaux Arts Trio, Mr. Pressler has compiled over thirty solo recordings, ranging from the works of Bach to Ben-Haim, and has recorded almost the entire chamber literature with piano on the Philips label.

Mr. Pressler resides in Bloomington, Indiana, with his wife Sarah.  His authority as an expert on chamber music is enormous, his knowledge of music and the piano is vast, and it is accompanied by much wisdom on producing beautiful music out of the notes written on the page.  

3/11 – Please do not edit without explicit permission from Melvin Kaplan, Inc.