Peter Wallfisch

Hans Peter Wallfisch (20 October 1924 – 10 November 1993)¹ was a concert pianist and teacher, resident in the United Kingdom from 1951 onwards.

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 the United Kingdom, and married the cellist Anita Lasker the following year;¹³ they had a son, the cellist Raphael Wallfisch, and a daughter, the psychotherapist Maya Lasker-Wallfisch.⁴

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.⁴

From 1973 to 1991 Wallfisch was professor of piano at the Royal College of Music. He suffered a stroke in 1991, which affected his ability to play, and he ceased performing in public. He died in London in 1993.⁴