Menahem Pressler, is established among the world's most distinguished and honored musicians. His career spanned over five decades beginning with the award of first prize at the Debussy International Piano Competition in 1946. His debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy followed soon after. Subsequent performances included the orchestras of New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Dallas, San Francisco, London, Paris, Brussels, Oslo and Helsinki.
The 1955 Berkshire Music Festival saw Pressler's debut with the Beaux Arts Trio, and quickly established his reputation as an internationally revered chamber musician. Other collaborations have included the Juilliard, Emerson, Guarneri and Cleveland Quartets. In addition to over fifty recordings with the Beaux Arts Trio, Menahem Pressler compiled over thirty solo recordings. The Beaux Arts Trio's mark in American culture is far-reaching; they play an ongoing role in cultural and educational centers with annual concert series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Celebrity Series of Boston and the Library of Congress.
Pressler received honorary doctorates from the Manhattan School of Music, the University of Nebraska, the North Carolina School of the Arts, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, six Grammy nominations, Gramophone magazine's lifetime achievement award, the International Chamber Music Association's lifetime achievement award, Chamber Music America's Distinguished Service Award, and the Gold Medal of Merit from the National Society of Arts and Letters. Other honors include German Critics "Ehrenurkunde" award, election into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, England's Record of the Year, and Musical America's 1997 "Ensemble of the Year." He taught master-classes world-wide and served on the jury of the Van Cliburn, Queen Elisabeth, and Artur Rubenstein competitions.
In 2005 he received the German Deutsche Bundesverdienstkreuz (Cross of Merit) First Class, Germany's highest honor, and France's highest cultural honor, Commandeur in the Order of Arts and Letters. And in 2007 Pressler was appointed Honorary Fellow of the Jerusalem Academy of Music. He was awarded the Wigmore Medal (2011) and the Menuhin Prize given by the Queen of Spain (2012), as well as the Music Teachers National Association Achievement Award. He was also inducted into the American Classical Music and Gramophone Magazine Halls of Fame (2012).
