At the time when Kestenberg was still working as General Manager of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, Menahem Pressler, the pianist and founder of the Beaux Arts Trio, was one of his first private pupils. Pressler remembers his former teacher, “Professor Kestenberg”, with the warmest sentiments. After Pressler won first prize at the Debussy International Piano Competition in San Francisco, Kestenberg offered him his own piano teacher’s chair, saying that his pupil should call him “Leo” from then on. That marked the beginning of a new collegial relationship. Pressler and Kestenberg remained friends even after Pressler had established himself in the USA as Professor of Piano at Indiana University. Numerous letters testify to the fact that Kestenberg did all he could to further Pressler’s career as a pianist, e.g. with international contacts and “fatherly” advice, while Pressler supported Kestenberg by seeking to enable Kestenberg’s master students to continue their studies in the USA.
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