Mîndru Katz

Mîndru Katz (born June 3, 1925 in Bucharest , Romania , † January 30, 1978 in Istanbul , Turkey ) was an Israeli pianist of Romanian origin.

Life

Katz's talent was recognized by George Enescu as a child . He became a student of Florica Musicescu , who also studied with Dinu Lipatti and Radu Lupu , and graduated from the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest in 1947 . In the same year he made his debut as a pianist with the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra . In 1959 he emigrated to Israel , where, as a pianist and teacher, he had a great influence on the level of pianistic culture and performance practice. His students at the Music School of the University of Tel Aviv proposals included Benjamin Erlich . At the first International Arthur Rubinstein Competition for Piano in 1974 he was a member of the jury alongside Arthur Rubinstein , Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli , Eugene Istomin and others.

Katz has worked with great conductors such as Sir John Barbirolli , Sergiu Celibidache , Antal Doráti , Josef Krips , Lorin Maazel and Alfred Wallenstein and important orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra , the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra , the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , BBC Orchestra and the Hallé Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra together. In addition to the piano works by Bach and Beethoven , his repertoire also included the piano concertos by Aram Khachaturjan and Sergei Prokofiev . With Henryk Szeryng he recorded the violin sonatas by César Franck and Johannes Brahms .

Katz died on stage on January 30, 1978 during a performance in Istanbul.