Pianist Misha Dichter Celebrates 80th Birthday with Kravis Center Performance Featuring Rachmaninoff Masterpiece

Misha Dichter will bring his commanding piano artistry to Dreyfoos Hall at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach during one of the first stops on his 80th-birthday tour. The audience will be captivated by a breathtaking performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43, on Tuesday, December 16 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Palm Beach Symphony Masterworks Series Concert. The program opens with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's colorful The Snow Maiden Suite and continues with Gabriela Lena Frank's vibrant Elegía Andina and Manuel de Falla's fiery The Three Cornered Hat.

Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody for piano and orchestra consists of 24 variations on the last of Paganini's set of Caprices for violin. Each variation is a little jewel and has its own character, according to Palm Beach Symphony Music Director Gerard Schwarz, who will conduct the orchestra. Schwarz noted that Dichter, their piano soloist, is a great artist and a dear friend whose previous performances of the piece promise a real treat for audiences.

Dichter's career launched spectacularly when he won the silver medal at the 1966 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow while enrolled at the famed Juilliard School in New York City. Shortly thereafter, on August 14, 1966, Dichter was the guest soloist in a Tanglewood performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a concert that was broadcast nationally on NBC and subsequently recorded for RCA. Two years later, he made his New York Philharmonic debut under the baton of Leonard Bernstein, collaborating on the same concerto.

Appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra, the principal London orchestras and every major American orchestra soon followed, establishing Dichter as one of the most sought-after pianists of his generation. His discography encompasses the major scores of Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Gershwin, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Schubert, Schumann, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky, creating a musical legacy spanning decades.

In 2007, Dichter took a three-month hiatus from the concert stage to deal with the onset of Dupuytren's Disease, a contracting of one or more fingers. After successful surgery and physical therapy, he returned to public performance and became a supporter of, and spokesperson for, the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Beyond his musical accomplishments, Dichter is also an accomplished writer having contributed articles to many leading publications including The New York Times, and a talented sketch artist who released an e-book titled A Pianist's World in Drawings of his music-related illustrations in 2012.

Fiercely dedicated to extending his artistic traditions to new generations of pianists, Dichter conducts widely attended masterclasses at major conservatories, universities and music festivals including Aspen, Curtis, Eastman, Harvard, Juilliard, Yale and Holland's Conservatorium van Amsterdam. This educational commitment underscores his importance not just as a performer but as a mentor preserving classical music traditions.

Before Dichter takes the stage, Palm Beach Symphony will usher in winter with a performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden Suite. Schwarz explained that Snow Maiden was originally one of Rimsky-Korsakov's 15 operas before being adapted into a short suite of exquisite, beautiful music with subtle and beautiful orchestration that envelopes listeners in the theater. Following intermission, the Symphony will perform Elegía Andina, the first orchestral piece written by Lena Frank in 2000, and close with de Falla's The Three Cornered Hat, for which Schwarz created a third suite incorporating all material from de Falla's first two suites plus additional material to provide a comprehensive flavor of this charming work.

The Masterworks concerts continue at the Kravis Center with upcoming performances by Alisa Weilerstein, cello on January 13; Vadim Repin, violin on March 2; Simon Trpčeski, piano on April 19; and Emanuel Ax, piano on May 17. The complete 2025-2026 Season schedule is available at https://palmbeachsymphony.org. Individual tickets and season subscriptions for the concerts are on sale now with tickets ranging in price from $27.50 to $104.50.