'A career happens if you love music. And if a career does not happen, do not worry because you still have music that you love" says Lazar Berman.

His international career began relatively late: in the middle of the seventies, he finally received permission to appear in the United States for the first time. At this point, he was already a greatly admired and renowned artist in the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries for twenty years. Until his first visit to the West, he was known only by name: a pianist of incredible technical mastery who was able to play the last movement of Chopin's B flat minor Sonata in less than fifty seconds. When Emil Gilels made his début in America, he was convinced that Richter was the only pianist better than himself. A few years later, Gilels spread the new message - he said that Lazar Berman was the best among them. But for almost two decades since his name came to the attention of the public, Berman remained a mystery.

His triumphant début in the United States took place in 1976, and it proved that Berman is much more than a master of technique. Within a few months, he had become one of the most highly praised artists of the international music scene. Throughout his sold-out American tours, he captivated audiences with his musical interpretation and grand romantic style. As well as returning to the US in the following seasons, he also made his European debuts in Paris, London and other European capitals. Within a short time, he had made numerous outstanding recordings, among them the Tchaikovsky Concerto with Herbert von Karajan.

Born in 1930, Lazar Berman gave his first public performance at the age of four. At the age of ten, he performed a Mozart concerto with the Moscow Philharmonic. After graduating from the Moscow Conservatoire, he regularly toured the Soviet Union and the other Eastern bloc countries and played at the Prague Spring Festival. In his youth, Berman won awards at several competitions in the Soviet Union, at the Franz Liszt Competition in Budapest and at the Concours Reine Elizabeth in Brussels.

The great Russian pianist Alexander Goldenweiser was the first who discovered the enormously gifted little boy and taught him at the Central Children's Music School and later at the Moscow Conservatoire. Berman says that "Goldenweiser was brilliant in teaching us the authentic content of the music. From him, I learnt how to approach an authentic interpretation. One did not play a diminuendo or crescendo because it was written in the music. We had to give him a reason, the composer's reason. He introduced me to the spirit of the music".

The other pedagogues who have had a great influence on his artistic development are Heinrich Neuhaus, Richter, Sofronitzky and Berman's mother. "Before the revolution, the leading piano school was St Petersburg. Rachmaninov, Silotti and Rubinstein graduated from this school. My mother was also a student there and she taught me the piano technique. Because she had problems with her ears, she stopped playing concerts: she then tried to convey her knowledge and experience to me."

Lazar Berman moved to Italy in 1990 and has been an Italian citizen since 1994. There, he teaches at the Music Conservatory in Imola and devotes himself especially to supporting young talents. As a jury member he also takes part in numerous competitions worldwide. In October 1995, he took on a guest professorship for two semesters at the music conservatory in Weimar.