PRESSLER, MENAHEM

PRESSLER, MENAHEM (1928– ), pianist. Originating in Magdeburg, the family immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1939. Pressler received most of his musical training in Israel – he studied with Eliyahu Rudiakow and Prof. Leo Kestenberg. A brilliant soloist, he first achieved international prominence at the age of 17, when he won the Claude Debussy Prize. He made his North American concerto debut shortly thereafter with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Ormandy (1948). Pressler appeared and recorded regularly with leading orchestras around the world. From 1955 he was professor and later distinguished professor of piano at the University of Indiana, Bloomington, and pianist/founder of the famous Beaux Arts Trio, which became one of the world's most enduring and widely acclaimed chamber music ensembles. The trio recorded almost the entire piano trio literature and received many prestigious awards. Pressler also appeared with the Juilliard, Emerson, Guarneri, and Fine Arts Quartets. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Gramaphone magazine in London and the German Critics Ehrenurkunde award in recognition of 40 years as the standard by which chamber music is measured. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Baker's Biographical Dictionary (1997); N. Delbanco. The Beaux Arts Trio (1985). (Uri (Erich) Toeplitz and Yohanan Boehm / Naama Ramot (2nd ed.)