Peter Wallfisch

Hans Peter Wallfisch (20 October 1924 – 10 November 1993)^[1] was a concert pianist and teacher, resident in Britain from 1951.

Wallfisch was born in Breslau, Lower Silesia, in 1924. In 1938 he emigrated to Palestine; he studied at the Jerusalem Conservatoire, and was later a teacher there. In the late 1940s, he studied in Paris with Marguerite Long.^[1] In 1948, he won the first prize of the Béla Bartók Competition in Budapest.^[2]

In 1951 he moved to Britain, and in 1952 he married the cellist Anita Lasker;^[1] they had a son, the cellist Raphael Wallfisch, and a daughter, the psychotherapist Maya Lasker-Wallfisch.^[3]

He performed in Europe and elsewhere. As well as the classics, he was interested in lesser-known music of different nations; among English composers he was particularly interested in the music of Frank Bridge, and also of Kenneth Leighton, who dedicated compositions to him.^[3]

From 1973 until 1991 Wallfisch was professor of piano at the Royal College of Music. In that year he suffered a stroke which affected his ability to play, and ceased performing in public. He died in London in 1993.^[3]