Master conductor Daniel Barenboim described the piano playing of Israeli pianist Amir Katz as being “of the very highest level”. Critics praise the equally clear and emotional performance by the virtuoso, who was born in 1973. “Life and art are one and the same,” says Amir Katz. “Only through my own personal experience can I animate the music with feelings and imagination.”

In fact, Amir Katz only started playing the piano at the age of eleven – much later than most other musical talents. His first teacher, Hanna Shalgi, discovered the great gift of her pupil, who played with great passion right from the start. Amir Katz was soon to win his first national competitions in Israel. At the age of 15, he performed with distinguished orchestras like the Haifa Symphony Orchestra. In his first international competition, the Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona in 1993, the young pianist immediately came first.

At the time, he no longer lived in Israel. At various stops in Europe, Amir Katz honed his piano playing under the direction of famous teachers.

Amir Katz’s path took him to the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Italy, before he arrived in Germany in 1999. His DAAD Scholarship enabled him to spend a year at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, studying with the renowned pianists Elisso Wirssaladze and Michael Schäfer. “The DAAD Scholarship gave me a great opportunity to study in Germany,” recounts Amir Katz. He came not only on account of his piano playing, but because foreign countries and languages had always fascinated him. Germany played a special role in the artist’s work. Immersing himself in the German culture helped him interpret the works of his favourite composers, such as Schubert and Beethoven. “I can’t explain this, for music is just as abstract as culture itself. But I can feel it.”

And Germany was where Amir Katz celebrated great successes. He won the International Schubert Competition in Dortmund in 2003, for which his Munich teacher, Michael Schäfer, had prepared him. His third CD, which was released in May 2009 and features his interpretation of Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without Words), was voted the best CD of recent months in 2009 by the music magazine Crescendo. Amir Katz toured Germany in winter 2012, with stops in Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Leipzig and Munich. He has long since become a regular guest at prestigious concert halls in Europe, in Asia and America and at international festivals. But it is in Germany that the Israeli has found a new home. “When I’m here, I’m always inspired by and full of enthusiasm for people’s great and genuine interest in culture – I have seldom experienced this as impressively as in Germany,” says the pianist.