After settling in Miami, Presser continued her studies at the University of Miami, and then at Florida International University, where she received an Outstanding Achievement in Art Award in 1978.

Presser’s work often interprets music, her subject in Unfinished Symphony. “I perceive music as the most abstract form of art. The notes in the musical score are notations of symbols, abstractions of a sound. When this notation becomes audible by the interpretation of a performer, it becomes music. The music exists while it is performed, only to disappear again into silence.

“The passage of music in time evokes in me, as a listener, emotions, colors, and images. This level of comprehension is of spontaneity. A second level is of recognition and recollection of information about the music; a rational and intellectual approach. The interaction of both levels creates in my work the spontaneity of a calligraphy that expresses or freezes a flow of music in space and time. It brings a mood in the form of color, it allows me to follow a process of reasoning and discover symbols, shapes, numbers, letters, and textures that relate to the music I am using.”