George Theophilus Walker was an American composer, pianist, and organist, and the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, which he received for his work Lilacs in 1996. Walker was married to pianist and scholar Helen Walker-Hill between 1960 and 1975. Walker was the father of two sons, violinist and composer Gregory T.S. Walker and playwright Ian Walker.
Robert Nathaniel Dett, often known as R. Nathaniel Dett and Nathaniel Dett, was a Canadian-American composer, organist, pianist, choral director, and music professor. Born and raised in Canada until the age of 11, he moved to the United States with his family and had most of his professional education and career there. During his lifetime he was a leading Black composer, known for his use of African-American folk songs and spirituals as the basis for choral and piano compositions in the 19th century Romantic style of Classical music.
Tania León is a Cuban-born American composer of both large scale and chamber works. She is also renowned as a conductor, educator, and advisor to arts organizations.
Sophia Yan is an American classical pianist, journalist and Beijing correspondent at The Daily Telegraph, a right-wing British news publication.
Natalie Leota Henderson Hinderas was an American pianist, composer and professor at Pennsylvania's Temple University.
Quynh Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American classical pianist based in New York City. She has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, to wide critical acclaim. For her Carnegie Recital Hall debut, the New York Concert Review commented: “Ms. Nguyen’s pianism and music making are graced with beauty and exuberance. She is a real artist; a wonderfully communicative performer. What a compendium of intellect, sophistication and taste!” Dr. Quynh Nguyen currently serves on the piano faculty of Hunter College and the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City.
Judith Gordon is a concert pianist and educator.
Stephen Clapp was a violinist and Dean Emeritus of the Juilliard School.
William David Black was an American pianist and teacher.
Thomas Rosenkranz is a contemporary American pianist, noted for performances of modern and international music.
Antonio Pompa-Baldi is an Italian-American pianist. The first prize winner in the 1999 Cleveland International Piano Competition, Pompa-Baldi has been noted by The New York Times for his "meltingly beautiful" playing. He was also a prizewinner of the 1998 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition and the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Pompa-Baldi continues to regularly perform internationally as a recitalist, as a chamber musician, and as a concerto soloist under such conductors as Hans Graf, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Theodore Kuchar and Krzysztof Urbański. Additionally, Pompa-Baldi currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music and as honorary guest professor and visiting professor at three universities in China, including the China Conservatory of Music.
Inga Kashakashvili in Kutaisi, Georgia, is a Georgian classical pianist.
Soyeon Kate Lee (이소연) is a Korean-American classical pianist, who currently lives in New York, US. She is on the College and Pre-College piano faculty at the Juilliard School.
Kariné Poghosyan is an Armenian pianist residing in New York City. She made her orchestral debut at the age of 14 playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1, and her solo Carnegie Hall debut at 23, and has since gone on to win numerous awards as well as perform in some of the world's most prestigious concert halls.
Anne Gamble Kennedy was an American classical pianist, piano professor, and accompanist for the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Nashville, Tennessee.
Ernestine Jessie Covington Dent was an American pianist, music educator, and community leader. She was the wife of Dillard University president Albert W. Dent, and the mother of poet and activist Thomas Dent.
Nerine Barrett is a Jamaican classical pianist, one of the few black women who have achieved international recognition as a pianist. She was selected in 1966 by the Young Concert Artists to appear at Carnegie Hall and the following year won the Mozart Memorial Prize of the Haydn-Mozart Society of London. In the 1980s, she began teaching music as a professor at the Hochschule für Musik Saar and later at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold. She continued to perform both as a solo artist and as part of the Trio Paideia.
Angela Cheng is a Hong Kong-born Canadian classical pianist. She has performed internationally as a recitalist and as a guest soloist with orchestras. Cheng is a professor of piano at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Frances Geneva Handy Southall was an American musicologist, pianist, and college professor.
Robert Sirota is an American classical music composer based in New York City and Searsmont, Maine. Sirota has written solo instrumental, vocal, chamber, orchestral, operatic, and liturgical works. He is the father of American violists Nadia Sirota and Jonah Sirota, and husband to organist and Episcopal priest Victoria Sirota. Dating back to 1994, Robert Sirota's work can be found on nine studio albums recorded by an assortment of musicians including: Dinosaur Annex Ensemble, the Chiara String Quartet, and the American String Quartet. Most recently, Sirota's 2020 work for cello and piano, Family Portraits, was recorded by the Fischer Duo for their album 2020 Visions, released on Navona Records on August 26, 2022.
