Benno Moiseiwitsch was born in ‘the cradle of Russian pianism’ Odessa, in 1890. At the age of nine he won the Anton Rubinstein prize, and after being told by the Guildhall School of Music in London that they could teach him nothing, he went, at the age of fourteen, to Vienna where he studied with the great teacher Theodore Leschetizky. At first Leschetizky told young Benno that he could play better with his feet, but Benno was undeterred and spent nearly two years in Vienna perfecting his art with the great master. His British debut was in Reading in 1908 and his London debut took place two years later. From 1919 he toured Europe and the United States regularly and had an international career that took him to every corner of the world.
