Misha Dichter Now in the fourth decade of an illustrious international career, Misha Dichter traces his musical heritage to the two great pianistic traditions of the 20th century: the Russian Romantic School as personified by Rosina Lhevinne, his mentor at The Juilliard School, and the German Classical style that was passed on to him by Aube Tzerko, a pupil of Artur Schnabel. Mr. Dichter reveals this dual legacy in his solo recitals and appearances with virtually all of the world's major orchestras, performing the grand virtuoso compositions of Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, as well as music from the central German-Viennese repertoire--works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms--that embody more introspective qualities. Mr. Dichter's acclaimed recordings on the Philips, RCA, and MusicMasters labels further illustrate the breadth of his musical interests. They include the Brahms piano concerti with Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Brahms's solo works including the Handel Variations, Beethoven piano sonatas, the complete Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies, the Liszt Piano Concerti with Andre Previn and the Pittsburgh Symphony, and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with Neville Marriner and the Philharmonia Orchestra, as well as music of Chopin, Mussorgsky, Schubert, Schumann, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky. Most recently, he recorded Stravinsky's Piano Concerto conducted by Robert Craft on a CD that Fanfare called "one of the few really important Stravinsky discs to come out in recent years." A noted exponent of Liszt's piano works and a champion of the composer's forward-looking contributions to the development of music, Mr. Dichter was honored in 1998 with the "Grand Prix International du Disque Liszt," presented for his recording on a Philips compact disk of Liszt piano transcriptions. An active chamber musician as well, Mr. Dichter has collaborated with most of the world's finest string players and frequently performs with his wife, Cipa Dichter in duo-piano recitals and concerto performances throughout North America. In addition, Mr. Dichter regularly gives master classes at leading music festivals, conservatories and universities, including Juilliard, Curtis, Harvard, Aspen, Ravinia, Caramoor, and the Amsterdam Conservatory. During the 2000-2001 season Mr. Dichter returned to the country of his heritage for concerts with the Warsaw Philharmonic during the orchestra's anniversary season; and he also traveled to China, the land of his birth, for concerts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic. This summer he gives the opening concert of the Aspen Music Festival with a performance of Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Aspen Chamber Symphony conducted by David Zinman. Mr. Dichter, who is celebrating his 27th anniversary year at the Aspen Music Festival, will return later in the season for An Evening with Misha and Cipa Dichter. Cipa Dichter will also join Mr. Dichter at the Ravinia Festival--where he has regularly appeared since 1968--in the first half of a program that also includes solo works by Scriabin, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff performed by Mr. Dichter. Mr. Dichter was born in Shanghai in 1945, his Polish parents having fled Poland at the outbreak of World War II. He moved with his family to Los Angeles at the age of two and began piano lessons four years later. In addition to his keyboard studies with Aube Tzerko, which established the concentrated practice regimen and the intensive approach to musical analysis that he follows to this day, Mr. Dichter studied composition and analysis with Leonard Stein, a disciple of Arnold Schoenberg. He subsequently came to New York to work with Mme. Lhevinne at The Juilliard School. At the age of 20, while still enrolled at Juilliard, he entered the 1966 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, where his choice of repertoire--music of Schubert and Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky--reflected the two major influences on his musical development. Mr. Dichter's stunning triumph at that competition launched his international career. Almost immediately thereafter, he performed Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. I at Tanglewood with Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony, a concert that was nationally broadcast live on NBC and subsequently recorded for RCA. In 1968, Mr. Dichter made his debut with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, performing this same concerto. Appearances with leading European ensembles, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, and the principal London orchestras, as well as regular performances with major American orchestras, soon followed. In recent seasons, he has appeared with the Baltimore, Chicago, Indianapolis, National and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, and made a 14-city North American tour with the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra. An accomplished writer, Mr. Dichter has contributed many articles to leading publications, including The New York Times. He has been seen frequently on national television and was the subject of an hour-long European television documentary. Mr. Dichter is also an avid tennis player and jogger, as well as a talented sketch artist. His drawings, which have served as a sort of visual diary, have been exhibited in New York art galleries. Mr. Dichter lives with his wife, Cipa, in New York City. They have two grown sons.