Mordecai Shehori is an Israeli-American pianist.

Biography

Mordecai Shehori was born in Israel and studied in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

 with Mindru Katz

Mindru Katz

Mindru Katz was a Romanian-Israeli classical pianist.Mindru Katz was born in Bucharest in 1925. He was discovered as a child prodigy by George Enescu, and taught by Florica Musicescu. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in Bucharest in 1947, in which year he also made his debut with the...

, whom he cites as his most influential teacher. At the age of nine he gave his first public performance. Later he received first prize in the Beethoven Competition and received the American Israel Cultural Foundation Award. In New York, he studied with Claude Frank

Claude Frank

Claude Frank is a German-born, American Jewish pianist whose career has included appearances with highly reputed orchestras, at major festivals, and in major recital halls around the world...

 at the Mannes College of Music

Mannes College of Music

Mannes College The New School for Music is The New School university's music conservatory. While the university's main campus is located in Greenwich Village, New York City, Mannes maintains its main academic building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan....

 and graduated from the Juilliard School

Juilliard School

The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

.

Shehori made his New York debut after winning the 1974 Jeunesses Musicales

Jeunesses Musicales

Jeunesses Musicales International is the largest youth music NGO in the world, created in Brussels, Belgium in 1945 with the mission to "enable young people to develop through music across all boundaries"...

 Competition. He concertises in the United States, Canada, and Europe and has performed at various music festivals and at the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

. He has given 27 different recital programs in New York in as many years. His critically acclaimed commercial recordings for Connoisseur Society

Connoisseur Society

Connoisseur Society is an American audiophile classical music and jazz record label based in New York. It was founded by E. Alan Silver and James Goodfriend. Silver is also leading the company In Sync, which offers remasterings on CDs from tapes and LPs.Silver and Goodfriend helped artists from the...

 and Cembal d'amour include music by Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

, Chopin

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....

, Scarlatti

Domenico Scarlatti

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style...

, Liszt

Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...

, Rameau

Jean-Philippe Rameau

Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François...

, Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...

, and many others. He is a two-time recipient of the La Gesse Foundation Award, and is listed on the roster of Steinway & Sons.

In February 1987, Shehori played two pianos with Vladimir Horowitz

Vladimir Horowitz

Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz    was a Russian-American classical virtuoso pianist and minor composer. His technique and use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were legendary. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Life and early...

. Shehori accompanied Horowitz in Mozart's Piano Concerto K.488, playing the orchestral reduction on second piano, while Horowitz played the concerto's solo part. This took place in the basement of Steinway & Sons

Steinway & Sons

Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway , is an American and German manufacturer of handmade pianos, founded 1853 in Manhattan in New York City by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg...

 in New York City. Later that year, Horowitz traveled to Milan and recorded the concerto for Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...

 with the La Scala Theater Orchestra conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini

Carlo Maria Giulini

Carlo Maria Giulini was an Italian conductor.-Biography:Giulini was born in Barletta, Italy, to a father born in Lombardy and a mother born in Naples; but he was raised in Bolzano, which at the time of his birth was part of Austria...

.

Horowitz was so pleased with Shehori's accompaniment that he began to invite him to his home on East 94th Street. Shehori spent many evenings with the Horowitzes. Shehori acted as page turner for Horowitz in what turned out to be the sessions for his final recording in Horowitz's New York home from October 24, 1989 to November 1, 1989. Horowitz died just a few days later, on November 5, 1989. Shehori has cited his friendship and artistic collaboration with Vladimir Horowitz as a significant source of knowledge and inspiration.

Reviews of Concerts

• Ericson, Raymond, et al. (1974). "Music in Review; Israeli Pianist in Debut Here" New York Times. March 24.
• (1976). "Mordecai Shehori Gives Piano Recital" New York Times. June 3.
• Ericson, Raymond (1979). "Piano Recital: Shehori Plays Three Sonatas". New York Times. May 26.
• Page, Tim (1984). "Music: Mordecai Shehori" New York Times. May 18.
• Rivers, Kate (1984). "Shehori: Poetry in Music" The Washington Post. November 3.
• Kimmelman, Michael (1987). "Recital: Mordecai Shehori, Pianist, At Merkin Hall." New York Times. May 22.
• Crutchfield, Will (1989). "Review/Piano; Hearing More Than Beethoven Set Down." New York Times. June 9.
• Henahan, Donal (1990). "Review/Piano; A Recitalist to Undermine a Critic." New York Times. May 9.
• Holland, Bernard (1995). "In Performance; Classical Music - A Pianist Reconciles 2 Composers' Contrasts" New York Times. June 12.
• Kozinn, Allan (1997). "Classical Music in Review: Signs of a Poet, And a Daredevil" New York Times. May 22.
• Kozinn, Allan (2003). "Music in Review: Classical Music; Making a Lost Style Speak to Today's Ears" New York Times. June 17.
• Schultz, Rick (2007). "A touch of Horowitz amid patter and pooches" Los Angeles Times. June 12.

Reviews of Recordings

• Kozinn, Allan (1991). "Record Brief - D. Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas (6); Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 3; Brahms: Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Mordecai Shehori, piano. Connoisseur Society CD4177; CD." New York Times. September 29.
• Duchen, Jessica. "Schubert/Liszt/Fauré, Mordecai Shehori (piano)" BBC Music Magazine.
• Distler, Jed. "Review: Learning by Example Volume 2." Classicstoday.com.
• Distler, Jed. "The New York Recitals Volume 1." Classicstoday.com.
• Turok, Paul. "Turok's Choice - April 2001" Andante.com.
• Lemco, Gary (July 2002). "Liszt: Love and the Devil" Audiophile Audition.
• Woolf, Jonathan (December 2002). "Classical CD Review - Rameau Mordecai Shehori, piano" Musicweb-International.com.
• Woolf, Jonathan (January 2003). "Classical CD Review - New York Recitals Volume 1 Mordecai Shehori, piano" Musicweb-International.com.
• Woolf, Jonathan (February 2003). "Classical CD Review - Franz Liszt Volume 1 Mordecai Shehori, piano" Musicweb-International.com.
• Woolf, Jonathan (April 2003). "Classical CD Review - Bach arr. Siloti, Handel, Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert arr. Liszt, Liszt Mordecai Shehori, piano" Musicweb-International.com.
• Woolf, Jonathan (March 2006). "Classical CD Review - Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt Mordecai Shehori, piano" Musicweb-International.com.
• [ Brownell, Mike (January 2008). "The Celebrated New York Concerts - Vol 2" Allmusicguide.com.]
• Woolf, Jonathan (March 2008). "Classical CD Review - Celebrated New York Concerts Volume 2 Mordecai Shehori, piano" Musicweb-International.com.
• Woolf, Jonathan (June 2008). "Mordecai Shehori Learning by Example Vols 1-3" Musicweb-International.com.
• Woolf, Jonathan (June 2008). "The Celebrated New York Concerts Volume 3 Mordecai Shehori, piano" Musicweb-International.com.
• Haylock, Julian (July 2008). "The Celebrated New York Concerts Volume 3 Mordecai Shehori, piano" International Piano Magazine.
• Lemco, Gary (July 2008). "The Celebrated New York Concerts Volume 2" Audiophile Audition.
• Lemco, Gary (January 2009). "The Celebrated New York Concerts Volume 3" Audiophile Audition.
• Woolf, Jonathan (February 2009). "CD Review - Mordecai Shehori plays Schumann & Liszt" Musicweb-International.com.
• Lemco, Gary (July 2009). "Shehori plays Mozart" Audiophile Audition.
• Lemco, Gary (September 2009). "Shehori plays Russian Music" Audiophile Audition.
• Lemco, Gary (June 2010). "BACH-BUSONI: Ten Chorale-Preludes; Chaconne in D Minor, from BWV 1004; Organ Toccata in C Major, BWV 564 - Mordecai Shehori, piano" Audiophile Audition.
• Lemco, Gary (September 2010). "Moscheles and Fetis: 'Methode des Methodes' - Mordecai Shehori, piano" Audiophile Audition.
• Lemco, Gary (January 2011). "Chopin Volume I: 19 Waltzes - Mordecai Shehori, piano" Audiophile Audition.

External links

• Commercial discography of Mordecai Shehori
• Biographical notes on Mordecai Shehori
• The Papers of Vladimir and Wanda Toscanini Horowitz Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University. Photographs of Horowitz taken by Mordecai Shehori
• Article by Mordecai Shehori describing his friendship and artistic collaboration with Vladimir Horowitz