Edna Stern

Born in Brussels, Belgium, but raised in Israel, pianist Edna Stern began taking lessons at age 6 and became a student of Viktor Derevenko at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv. After a return to Brussels, Stern worked with Martha Argerich, then moved to Basel in 1996 to study with Krystian Zimerman. Attendance at master classes led by Alicia de Larrocha, Andreas Staier, and Leon Fleisher at the International Piano Foundation inspired to her to follow Fleisher to the Peabody Institute. In 2003, Stern moved to Paris, where she began playing the fortepiano and started to develop her distinctive approach to historically informed period performances. Stern's repertoire has run the gamut from the music of J.S. Bach to contemporary keyboard works, and she has played on many different pianos in accordance with the stylistic and historic needs of the music. An example of this is Stern's 2010 album of Chopin's solo piano works, which she played on the 1842 Pleyel piano in the collection of the Musée de la Musique, Paris.