List of people with absolute pitch

This is a list of notable people with absolute pitch, or "perfect pitch".

Note for pre-19th century composers

Owing to uncertainty in the historical record, it is often impossible to determine whether composers and musicians of the past had absolute pitch. Since absolute pitch is rare in European musical culture, ^[1] claims that any particular musician possessed it are difficult to evaluate. Among composers of the Baroque and Classical eras, evidence is available only for Mozart, who is documented to have demonstrated the ability at age 7. ^[1] Experts have only surmised that Beethoven had it, as indicated from some excerpts from his letters. By the 19th century, it became more common for the presence of absolute pitch to be recorded, such as in the case of Camille Saint-Saëns and John Philip Sousa.

List

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Mariah Carey

Kirsten Flagstad

Whitney Houston

Michael Jackson

Persons with absolute pitch

Name	Year of birth	Year of death	Description
Bill Bailey [2]	1965	(living)	British comedian, musician and actor
Ludwig van Beethoven [3]	1770	1827	German composer and pianist
Joshua Bell [4]	1967	(living)	American violinist and conductor
Nikolai Bernstein [5]	1896	1966	Russian scientist
Mariah Carey [3] [6] [7]	1969	(living)	American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer
Ray Charles [4]	1930	2004	American musician
Frédéric Chopin [3]	1810	1849	Polish composer and pianist
Jacob Collier [8] [9]	1994	(living)	English singer, composer and producer
Celine Dion [10]	1968	(living)	Canadian singer
Ella Fitzgerald [11]	1917	1996	American jazz singer
Kirsten Flagstad [12]	1895	1962	Norwegian opera singer
David Foster [13]	1949	(living)	Canadian musician, producer
Charly García [14] [15]	1951	(living)	Argentine singer-songwriter, musician and record producer
Glenn Gould [16]	1932	1982	Canadian classical pianist
Jascha Heifetz [17]	1901	1987	Russian-American violinist
Whitney Houston [18]	1963	2012	American singer and actress
Michael Jackson [3]	1958	2009	American singer, songwriter and dancer
James P. Johnson [19]	1894	1955	American pianist and composer
Scott Joplin [20]	1868	1917	American composer and pianist
Carole King [21]	1942	(living)	American singer, songwriter, and musician
Dimash Kudaibergen [22]	1994	(living)	Kazakh singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist
Gary Moore [23]	1952	2011	Northern Irish musician
W. A. Mozart [24] [3]	1756	1791	Austrian composer
Frederick Ouseley [25]	1825	1889	English musician, professor
Derek Paravicini [26]	1979	(living)	British pianist, musical savant
Itzhak Perlman [4]	1945	(living)	Israeli-American violinist
Lucky Peterson [27]	1964	2020	American musician
Oscar Peterson [28]	1925	2007	Canadian jazz pianist
Charlie Puth [29] [30]	1991	(living)	American singer, songwriter, and record producer
Sviatoslav Richter [4]	1915	1997	Russian classical pianist
Arthur Rubinstein [4]	1887	1982	Polish-American pianist
Jordan Rudess [31]	1956	(living)	American keyboardist for Dream Theater
Lea Salonga [32] [33]	1971	(living)	Filipina singer, actress, producer, and columnist
Sheryn Regis [34] [35]	1979	(living)	Filipina singer, actress, host
Artur Schnabel [36]	1882	1951	Austrian-American classical pianist
James Scott [37]	1885	1938	American ragtime composer
Art Tatum [4]	1909	1956	American jazz pianist
Arturo Toscanini [4]	1867	1957	Italian conductor
Brian Wilson [38]	1942	(living)	American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and co-founder of the Beach Boys
Stevie Wonder [4]	1950	(living)	American musician
Yo-Yo Ma [39]	1955	(living)	American cellist

References

1. Deutsch, D (2006). "The enigma of absolute pitch" (PDF). Acoustics Today. 2 (4): 11–19. doi:10.1121/1.2961141. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 24, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
2. "Perfect Pitch: 'I knew the hoover was playing B flat' | BBC". BBC Radio Wales. April 5, 2006.
3. "What actually is perfect pitch – and how do I get it?". Classic FM. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
4. Deutsch, Diana (2019). Musical illusions and phantom words: how music and speech unlock mysteries of the brain. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 82, 101. ISBN   978-0-19-020683-3.
5. Latash, Mark L. (2020). Bernstein's Construction of Movements: The Original Text and Commentaries. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-000-21386-7.
6. "Perfect Pitch and How It Works". Signia Hearing Aids. September 30, 2019. Archived from the original on October 28, 2020. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
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8. "Millennial Mozart: The boundless creative genius of Jacob Collier". New Atlas. July 16, 2020. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
9. Killian, Anais. "The Genius of Jacob Collier". The Register Forum. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
10. "The Mysteries of Perfect Pitch | Psychology Today". www.psychologytoday.com.
11. "Ella Fitzgerald: America's First Lady Of Song". NPR.org. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
12. Wilson, Glenn Daniel (1994). Psychology for Performing Artists: Butterflies and Bouquets. London and Bristol, Pennsylvania: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. p. 161. ISBN   1-85302-166-0. When soprano Kirsten Flagstad suffered a serious ear ailment that rendered her virtually deaf, for over a year she was able to carry on singing major Wagnerian roles at the Metropolitan Opera using only her own absolute pitch and visual contact with the conductor.
13. Foster, David (2009). Hitman: Forty Years Making Music, Topping the Charts, and Winning Grammys. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-1-4391-6665-9.
14. Moreira, Vanessa (November 3, 2020). "Charly García y su gran don: el oído absoluto" [Charly García and his great gift: absolute pitch]. 970 Universal (in Spanish). Archived from the original on June 12, 2021. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
15. Jofre, Alejandro (October 23, 2017). "Carlitos antes de Charly: el oído absoluto de García" [Carlitos before Charly: García's perfect pitch]. La Tercera (in Spanish). Retrieved June 12, 2021.
16. Ostwald, Peter F. (1997). Glenn Gould: The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 68. ISBN   978-0-393-04077-7.
17. Kopytova, Galina (2013). Jascha Heifetz: Early Years in Russia. Indiana University Press. p. 113. ISBN   978-0-253-01089-6.
18. "Whitney Houston Has The Perfect Pitch, But That's Not All She's Remembered For". May 12, 2020. Archived from the original on January 4, 2022. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
19. Gates (Jr.), Henry Louis; Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks (2009). Harlem Renaissance Lives from the African American National Biography. Oxford University Press. p. 295. ISBN   978-0-19-538795-7.
20. Frew, Tim (1996). Scott Joplin & the Age of Ragtime. The Life, Times & Music Series. New York: Friedman/Fairfax Publishers. p. 35. ISBN   1-56799-304-4. Born with perfect pitch, Scott quickly picked up songs on his family's old, battered reed organ.
21. "Carole King Biography and Interview". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement. Archived from the original on August 12, 2020. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
22. "Бабушка и дедушка Димаша дали эксклюзивное интервью" (in Russian). NUR Kazakhstan. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
23. Shapiro, Harry (February 6, 2022). "How Gary Moore reignited the British blues scene with the help of a famous guitar". Classic Rock. Future plc. Retrieved February 26, 2025.
24. "Social Sciences". ucsdnews.ucsd.edu. Archived from the original on November 13, 2013. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
25. Sacks, Oliver (2008). Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. Knopf Doubleday. p. 130. ISBN   978-1-4000-3353-9.
26. "Meet the blind, autistic piano genius, who can play any piece after hearing it once". Classic FM. March 3, 2021. Retrieved October 30, 2023.
27. Gunther, Marty (June 28, 2019). "Featured Interview – Lucky Peterson". Blues Blast Magazine. Retrieved December 14, 2023. I had perfect pitch, so I didn't have a problem knowin' where they were.
28. Batten, Jack (2012). Oscar Peterson: The Man and His Jazz. Tundra. p. 21. ISBN   978-1-77049-362-9.
29. Jupp, Emily (January 29, 2016). "Charlie Puth interview: Being bullied for pitch perfect talent and Selena Gomez's advice on dealing with negativity". The Independent . Archived from the original on May 18, 2021. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
30. Roberts, Maddy Shaw (December 3, 2020). "Yes, Charlie Puth has perfect pitch. He's also a piano major, Rachmaninov stan and jazz improvisor". Classic FM . Archived from the original on August 14, 2021. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
31. Rogerson, Ben (October 17, 2023). ""Not what I expected at all": here's what happened when Dream Theater's Jordan Rudess was asked to play along to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' Empire State of Mind, a song he'd never heard before". MusicRadar. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
32. "What Regine Velasquez refuses to do in singing talent search show". PEP.ph. Archived from the original on December 10, 2020. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
33. Staff, Messenger. "Broadway Legend Lea Salonga Performs at Pepperdine in April". M'Online. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
34. "What Regine Velasquez refuses to do in singing talent search show". PEP.ph. Archived from the original on December 10, 2020. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
35. Staff, Messenger. "Broadway Legend Lea Salonga Performs at Pepperdine in April". M'Online. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
36. Saerchinger, Cesar (2013). Artur Schnabel: A Biography. Read Books. ISBN   978-1-4474-9551-2.
37. Christensen, Lawrence O.; Foley, William E.; Kremer, Gary (1999). Dictionary of Missouri Biography. University of Missouri Press. p. 681. ISBN   978-0-8262-6016-1.
38. Lambert, Philip (2007). Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: the Songs, Sounds, and Influences of the Beach Boys' Founding Genius. Continuum. p. 2. ISBN   978-0-8264-1876-0. Archived from the original on May 15, 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
39. "Singing the praises of perfect pitch". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 14, 2022.