Leo Kestenberg

Leo Kestenberg was a German-Israeli classical pianist, music educator, and cultural politician. Working for the government in Prussia from 1918, he began a large-scale reform of music education (Kestenberg-Reform) which aimed to teach music to all, beginning with small children, and including the education of their teachers. In exile in Prague, he was instrumental in forming the and administrating the first international organization for music education, which became ISME. He fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and later moved to Mandatory Palestine, where he founded a seminary for music teachers and privately taught pianists such as Menahem Pressler and Alexis Weissenberg.