DICHTER, MISHA

DICHTER, MISHA (1945– ), U.S. pianist. Dichter was born in Shanghai, where his Polish parents had fled at the outbreak of World War II. He moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1947 and began piano lessons at the age of six. Dichter studied with Aube Tzerko (a former schnabel student) and, later, with Rosina lhevinne at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. He also studied composition with Leonard Stein (a Schoenberg disciple). His crowning success came in 1966, when he won second prize in the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, Moscow, and he was particularly popular with Russian audiences. After his London (June 1967) and New York (January 1968) debuts, Dichter toured widely. He performed with major American and European orchestras, and also in Israel and the Far East. An active chamber musician, Dichter frequently performed with his wife in duo-piano recitals. They gave the world premiere of Robert Starer's Concerto for Two Pianos with the Seattle Symphony. Dichter's master classes at Juilliard, Eastman, Yale, and Harvard were widely attended. A player of generous temperament and technique, he excelled in the Romantic piano repertory. Dichter's style reflects the German respect for structure and clarity and at the same time the Russian search for heroic proportion. His numerous recordings include works of Brahms, Liszt, Chopin, Mussorgsky, Schubert, Schumann, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky. As a writer, he contributed many articles to leading publications, including the New York Times. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: NG, S.V.; Baker's Biographical Dictionary (1997). (Max Loppert / Naama Ramot (2nd ed.)