Jacobs professor awarded Lifetime Achievement for his music legacy

Distinguished professor of piano at the Jacobs School of Music Menahem Pressler recently won the Lifetime Achievement Award for the 2011 International Classical Music Awards.     

“I am thrilled that I am remembered and not forgotten,” Pressler said. “My activities have not just been noticed, but recognized.”

The judges for the prestigious international award went through about 300,000 records before selecting the winners, Pressler said.

For Alexander Kerr, professor of violin, Pressler winning the lifetime achievement award came as no surprise.

“It’s well-deserved,” Kerr said. “He’s literally a living legend and one of the most important musicians in the world.”

Pressler began studying violin at age 5, and his brother took piano lessons, “but he was tired, so I would take the lesson instead,” Pressler said.

Thus, he learned both instruments until he had to select one upon entering school.
He chose piano.  

“Piano seems to be everything, a whole symphony orchestra,” Pressler said. “It has the richest repertoire.”  

He recently returned from Munich where he played with the Ebene Quartet, a group of talented young musicians whose show sold out.

Traveling all across the world to perform and teach, Pressler said he teaches “like mad when I come home.”

“Teaching is that which gratifies the most deeply,” Pressler said.

On Monday, Pressler left for California; on Tuesday, he taught and performed at the San Francisco Conservatory.

Later this month, he will be traveling to Vancouver and then to Paris.

On April 6, he will attend the ceremony for his Lifetime Achievement award in Tampere, Finland.

“He’s amazing. He has the knowledge of 70 years and the energy level of a 20-year-old,” Kerr said.

Michael McQuay, a doctoral student and assistant of Pressler, said Pressler has an “insane dedication to his students and teaching career.”

McQuay said he believes Pressler has something most performers with similar accomplishments do not: He gives back to his students as an educator.

If he has a three-day break during a tour, McQuay said, Pressler spends it flying back to Bloomington and giving each of his 15 students a lesson before heading back to Europe.

Pressler said he is very proud of his students, who live all across the world and have “won competitions and made records. They are teachers and they are respected.”
Another achievement of his is the acclaimed Beaux Arts Trio, of which he was a co-founder and pianist.

The group officially split after the 2007-08 season.

Pressler said the trio is special for existing for more than 50 years performing at thousands of concerts. Even when Pressler broke his ribs, he still continued to play 10 concerts in Australia.

“I never missed one concert,” Pressler said.