Moshe Lustig

Moshe Lustig was born in Liegnitz, Germany in 1922 and started playing the piano at the age of five. When he was six years old he composed the music and libretto for an opera “The Thumbling”. He then studied piano and music theory at the renowned Berlin Stern-Conservatoire, where he was granted a scholarship and soon won the reputation as a child prodigy.

At the age of ten he emigrated with his parents to Palestine. He continued studying the piano with Alexander Buch, took lessons in conducting with Michael Taube, and composition lessons with Paul Ben-Haim and later with Erich Walter Sternberg.

At seventeen Lustig started studying the French horn with Horst Salomon, on a scholarship from the Palestine Broadcasting Orchestra; two years later he joined the orchestra of the Palestine Broadcasting Service in Jerusalem as second horn player. He accompanied a great number of artists and conducted the P.B.S. Choral Society. At About the same time he founded the P.B.S. Wind-Ensemble, acting as its conductor as well as writing and arranging new repertoire.

In 1948, he moved to Tel Aviv, where he worked with ”Kol Israel” and continued his many-sided musical activities, He accompanied artists for radio programs, played in broadcast recitals, produced numerous musical programs and wrote arrangements of folk songs and folk dance music for a variety of instruments. Apart from his activity for “Kol Israel” he achieved a reputation as a splendid chamber musician, appearing with various ensembles throughout Israel. He became especially renowned as Israel’s top-ranking piano accompanist, appearing with world-famous guest artists. Accepting an invitation from Ida Hendel, he went to Italy for a country-wide recital tour. 

He also wrote the music for the Pantomime ‘Jeptha’s Daughter’ for ‘Scopus Films’ (1956) and the music for the French comedy ‘The Thieves’ Carnival’ for the ‘Habimah’ Theatre.

During his last years he often played the piano part in concerts of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and took part in the performance of Kabalewsky’s 4th Symphony under Dimitri Mitropoulos. He won numerous prizes, including the “KoL Zion Lagola Prize”, and the “Milo Club Prize” (1957).

Lustig was a highly gifted and versatile arranger of classical music for numerous combinations. Among his hundreds of arrangements for the Israel Radio and others, many were traditional Israeli melodies adapted for classical instruments. He referred to them as free arrangements, to the extent that they often became new musical works in their own right.

He died on the 18th of September 1958, from an illness that had undermined his health for many years.