Pnina B. Becher

Pianist

For information about Pnina's upcoming tour in
Holland please visit: www.pianoreserva.nl

Born to American parents in a small village, Moshav Beit Herut, in Israel, Pnina Becher is the product of a generation of pioneers.

After being dubbed ‘prodigy’ in her early childhood, Pnina went on to win medals and scholarships in prestigious piano competitions throughout Israel. Her love for music stretched to vocals as well, and so Pnina was a member of the Efroni Choir, with whom she performed all over Europe, as well as Israel.

When the time came, Pnina served in the Israeli Army, just as all other eighteen year olds in the country do. Yet even after a two-year break of military service, Pnina returned to her beloved music world.

She entered the Tel Aviv Rubin Academy of Music, studying with Emanuel Krasovsky. After just a short time at the Academy, it was clear that Pnina would go on to achieve greatness in the music world.

Yet as it so often does, life came knocking at Pnina’s door, when she married in the late eighties, and moved to New York. She made the decision to take a hiatus from playing the piano… say, eighteen years, during which she built with her husband a family of three daughters, Aviv, Eden, and Asif (and three poodles…) whom she raised in New York.

After the eighteen-year break, and a move to Scottsdale, Arizona, Pnina whirled back into her music, truly making an entrance and performed both as a soloist, and with orchestras in the United States, Europe, and Israel, and Australia, where she played at the prestigious Melbourne International Arts Festival and was enthusiastically received in her sold out concerts.

True to her origins, Pnina is in fact a pioneer of sorts. Her first album, a glorious recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations has been critically acclaimed, and Pnina’s second album, a brilliant recording of Scarlatti, Chopin, and Debussy, has just recently been released.

Discography

To be added...

Reviews

ArtsZine #28 - FESTIVAL WRAP UP: Music from the other end of the spectrum but with no less connection to the audiences in the hall - Pnina Becher. For those of you who didn’t realize she also went to perform in Shepparton, the word coming back from the concert there was that there were five ovations and she did curtain calls for each. What very experienced classical music audiences were so overwhelmed by was a combination of her technique, but more so the passion and intelligence. She seemed to have a direct channel on to Debussy, Chopin and Scarlotti (let alone the Goldberg Variations within her encores).

Kristy Edmunds
Artistic Director, Melbourne international arts festival

Bangkok’s Independent Paper, October 31, 2007: One of the perks of attending any multi-arts international festival is that you usually end up catching some performances that you didn't plan to see. Organisers of these events are aware of this fact and skilfully help things along by scheduling programmes that don't only complement one another but also allow paying audiences to attend more than one event of a different genre on the same evening, without suffering cultural overload.

Perhaps they want us to try something new and fresh - preventing theatre buffs, dance aficionados and music fans from pigeon holing themselves and helping them become true performing arts lovers instead.

My second day at the Melbourne International Arts Festival 2007 started with a call from the festival's publicist offering me a ticket to a classical recital by Israeli pianist Pnina Becher, who was making her Australian debut at 6pm. Although both she and I knew that I would be able to watch only the first half, as I had a ticket for the jazz concert by the Melbourne-based Dead Horse Band at 7pm, I gladly accepted the offer.

Walking through the bustling Federation Square, I found a quiet retreat at the multi-purpose venue called BMW Edge. I was surprised not to see any promotional cars, pretty presenters or the company's logo, and was even more amazed to discover a 450-seat hall with a crystalline web of glass interlaced with a steel and zinc framework. From most of the seats, the audience could also enjoy the sights of the Yarra River and the adjacent Alexandra Gardens during springtime twilight.

The pianist charmed the audience with her powerful renditions of timeless compositions, including Scarlatti's Sonatas and Chopin's "Nocturnes" and "Premiere Ballade". The experience was so enticing that I was reluctant to leave at the interval….

Pawit Mahasarinand
"The Nation"

Links

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