Q&A with pianist Menahem Pressler

Last year, pianist Menahem Pressler turned 88 years old, and, after a concert performance, he received a birthday card from the  President. The Obamas called him into the ranks of “extraordinary Americans.”

But a birthday wish isn’t Pressler’s only accolade — this German-born muscian has contributed to music and sound worldwide.

He is the  IU Dean Charles H. Webb Chair in Music and a founding member of the Beaux Arts Trio, a chamber music performance group. This trio has been praised in the Washington Post and the New York Observer.

This year marks Pressler’s 57th year  teaching at the IU Jacobs School of Music, but has also seen him honored with the Music Teachers National Association Achievement Award, an honor bestowed to individuals who have had an impact on music teaching. 

For Pressler, the award highlights both his life’s work and greatest passion.  

IDS You’ve received numerous honors over the years. How is this award different for you?

PRESSLER It’s always a happy thing to be recognized for what one has done.
When you do it, when you teach, you don’t think of awards.

For (a teacher), your award is when the students can understand the great masters, and you can show him (the way) into the hearts of the masters. When the world says to you, “We appreciate what you have done,” and you are an example for other teachers, of course you are thrilled, of course you appreciate the recognition.

IDS When you joined the music school, you were a young pianist jetting around the world for performances. Why did you decide to start teaching at IU?

PRESSLER Teaching has been my passion, my life. All my students, in a way, are my children — children of my spirit, children of my knowledge.

After all, I have accumulated a lot of knowledge and a lot of wisdom, a lot of experience that I’d like to share with my students.

I loved (Bloomington) from the first day. I loved the little town. I have loved the music school. It surely is a wonderful school, truly one of the best in the whole world.

I love my colleagues. I love my students. (From 1955) I attracted better and better students.

They came from all over the world. They are (now) professors, they play concerts, they are important to the world of music.

IDS What do you think makes you a good teacher?

PRESSLER A good teacher also teaches how to love. Music is something very special, because it requires a tremendous amount of excellence.

You need to be especially good. But yet, it does not mean that you either become rich, or that the fame is given to everybody. No. But what is given to everybody is the love of the subject.

Music is not just a profession, music is part of you. It’s part of your soul.

You conserve words of the great masters — of Beethoven, of Bach, of Schumann, of Brahms, of Debussy.

IDS What is it about music that keeps you going?

PRESSLER  The height the human spirit soars to is music. Music is a language that doesn’t need words to make you feel. It is not only felt by the one who plays it, but also the one that listens to it.

When I play, people feel. To a great extent, if I trust my critics, if I trust my friends, I do that.

There is something very beautiful that happens in my body and soul when I touch, hear and play music, and there’s something very beautiful in my soul when I teach it to my students.

IDS In author Stuart Isacoff’s  nonfiction “A Natural History of the Piano,” he described you as “a bullet train without brakes.” How do you balance your hectic lifestyle?

PRESSLER I’ve been endowed with a great deal of energy, and that has been my saving grace. I’m all over the world in a few days. I’m running here, I’m running there — I don’t have to rest like many people.

My students bought me, many years ago, this little icebox, because I came straight to the studio (from the airport), then home. I went directly to teach. (They gave me) an icebox so I could get something to eat first. Although I’m old and have slowed down a bit, (the energy’s) still good enough for two. It used to be good enough for 10.

IDS You have contributed to the worlds of music and pedagogy in so many different ways. What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?

PRESSLER  A life has to have a reason. It’s not just about a job. Life has to be more. There is more to it.

It is the love for music, it is the love for spirituality, it is the love for the most beautiful things in life, which is what one creates for oneself in one’s own soul. And I feel, as a teacher, that it is my pleasure, duty and privilege to be able to introduce my students to such things.