The year: 1989: The story: one of the most curious in Germany’s academic history. Young pianist Bernd Glemser was appointed as the country’s youngest professor. Still a student of Russian pianist and teacher Vitaly Margulis at the time, he had to officially leave college to take the post, but was, however given the comforting notice that he would be allowed to complete his examinations during the following two years…

One of the few opportunities that piano students have to perform internationally – above all with orchestras – is during the course of competitions. For this reason, the young pianist travelled the entire world until 1987 and unknowingly broke a record that has been on the books since 1890: he won 17 competitions and special prices in row. “The prize money allowed me to buy my first grand piano…”
Since then, the passionate virtuosity of his playing – coupled with elegance, flair and poetic sensibility has been fascinating audiences from Chile to China, where in 1996 he was the first Western musician to perform nation-wide live on television (naturally Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1).
Throughout a vast and varied repertoire, the artist delights his listeners with his unerring stylistic assurance. His exceptionally broad repertoire, ranging from baroque to modern, makes Bernd Glemser one of today’s elite pianists.

31 highly-acclaimed CDs, television recordings, worldwide 15-20 radio broadcasts a year of concerts with big-name conductors such as Blomstedt, Chailly, Welser-Möst and Wolfgang Sawallisch - all confirm Glemser's exceptional status among the international elite of pianists. Almost all previously released 31 CD recordings have received awards from trade journals.

A further CD has been released in the autumn of 2009, comparing and contrasting preludes and fugues by Bach and Shostakovich. December will see the pianist back in the recording studio. He will be celebrating Chopin's bicentenary with the complete Ballades and Scherzos.

The pianist has particular affinity for the works of Sergej Rachmaninov. This makes Glemser the obvious choice for Wolfgang Sawallisch to have invited to perform the composers Piano Concerto No.3 with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The ensemble, which recorded with Rachmaninov during the composer’s lifetime, celebrated it’s 100th birthday with this work. Hollywood, always being aware of Rachmaninov’s romantic and seductive music to be found in his piano concertos had Bernd Glemser playing in the recent movie SPIDERMAN 3. A long journey for a boy from the hills of Southern Germany, who often had to ski to his piano lessons…

In addition to his many awards, Bernd Glemser received the Andor Foldes Prize in 1992 and the European Pianist’s Prize in 1993 in Zürich. In 2003, he was awarded the Federal Cross of merit by German President Rau.