German by birth, the pianist Menahem Pressler is one of the founder members of the Beaux-Arts Trio, which celebrated its 50th birthday in 2005.

Known as a distinguished chamber musician, Menahem Pressler has made many recordings from Bach to Ben Haim, in solo repertoire and in chamber music, of which some are without doubt amongst the most important recordings in the history of chamber music.

Born in Magdeburg, in 1938 he emigrated to Israel, where he studied. He began his career in 1946 winning the Debussy Piano Competition in San Francisco. He was invited to play with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra for his American debut and went on to tour in the USA and Europe with the orchestras of New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Dallas, San Francisco, Londres, Paris, Brussels, Oslo and Helsinki. Aside from his participation in the Beaux Arts Trio, Menahem Pressler has performed with the Juilliard, Emerson, Guarneri, Cleveland and Israel Quartets, and with the Pasquier Trio. In 1955, he began his collaboration with Bloomington University in Indiana where he now holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Music. In 1994, he received the Service Award of Chamber Music America and, in 1998, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Nebraska, a Gramophone Award and the prestigious German critics “Ehrenurkunde Award” in recognition of, for 40 years, being the standard by which chamber music is measured. He was already in Verbier two years ago.