The Leschetizky Legacy

Theodor Leschetizky was a virtuoso who taught hundreds of renowned pianists in the late 1800s until his passing in 1915. As a boy, he studied with Beethoven’s student Czerny, and then created an illustrious career as a performer and legendary teacher of performers and teachers.

A fiercely dynamic mentor, Leschetizky brought out the unique brilliance in each pupil, adapting his teaching to their particular aptitudes. He held his students to impeccable standards of technique, while encouraging genuine creative expression through music.

Many of Leschetizky’s pupils became world-famous performers, and also extraordinary teachers themselves, who instilled his ideals in their students, too.

Led by Edith Sullivan Golde, a group of his original proteges from around the world formed the Leschetizky Association in 1942 to preserve and celebrate this important tradition of musical mentorship and piano performance. 

“No Art without Life, No Life without Art.”

Leschetizky’s genius was his ability to transform piano players into soulful artists.

In each student he would ignite the spark of creativity and passion that infuses music with life, and life with music. Performers in the Leschetizky lineage play with rhythmic tension and release, leading audiences on an emotional journey to the expressive pinnacle of a piece. It’s profound to play, and deeply moving to listen.

The Leschetizky Association exists to celebrate artistic musical expression among fellow pianists and friends. As Leschetizky would often say… No art without life, no life without art.