Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading musician of his era, one whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation".
Malcolm Bilson is an American pianist and musicologist specializing in 18th- and 19th-century music. He is the Frederick J. Whiton Professor of Music in Cornell University, Ithaca, New York Bilson is one of the foremost players and teachers of the fortepiano; this is the ancestor of the modern piano and was the instrument used in Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven's time.
A fortepiano, sometimes referred to as a pianoforte, is an early piano. In principle, the word "fortepiano" can designate any piano dating from the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1698 up to the early 19th century. Most typically, however, it is used to refer to the mid-18th to early-19th century instruments, for which composers of the Classical era, especially Haydn, Mozart, and the younger Beethoven and Hummel, wrote their piano music.
Vladimir Oskarovich Feltsman (Russian: Владимир Оскарович Фельцман, Vladimir Oskarovič Feltsman is a Russian-American classical pianist of Lithuanian Jewish descent particularly noted for his devotion to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Frédéric Chopin.
Ignace Joseph Pleyel was an Austrian composer, music publisher and piano builder of the Classical period.
Johann (Georg) Andreas Stein was an outstanding German maker of keyboard instruments, a central figure in the history of the piano.
Paul Badura-Skoda was an Austrian pianist.
The Fantasie in C major, Op. 15, popularly known as the Wanderer Fantasy, is a four-movement fantasy for solo piano composed by Franz Schubert in 1822. It is widely considered Schubert's most technically demanding composition for the piano. Schubert himself said "the devil may play it," in reference to his own inability to do so properly.
Ronald Brautigam is a Dutch concert pianist, best known for his performances of Beethoven's piano works on the fortepiano.
Alexei Lubimov is a Russian pianist, fortepianist and harpsichordist.
Nannette Streicher was a German piano maker, composer, music educator, writer and a close friend of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Pleyel et Cie. is a French piano manufacturing firm founded by the composer Ignace Pleyel in 1807. In 1815, Pleyel's son Camille joined him as a business partner. The firm provided pianos to Frédéric Chopin, who considered Pleyel pianos to be "non plus ultra". Pleyel et Cie. also operated a concert hall, the Salle Pleyel, where Chopin performed his first – and last – Paris concerts. Pleyel's major contribution to piano development was the first use of a metal frame in a piano. Pleyel pianos were the choice of composers such as Chopin, Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Ravel, de Falla and Stravinsky and of pianists and teachers Alfred Cortot, Philip Manuel and Gavin Williamson. Nineteenth-century musicians involved in the company's management included Joseph O'Kelly and Georges Pfeiffer.
Conrad Graf was an Austrian-German piano maker. His pianos were used by Beethoven, Chopin, and Robert and Clara Schumann, among others.
Gabriel Anton Walter was a builder of pianos. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes him as "the most famous Viennese piano maker of his time".
Leonard Hokanson was an American pianist who achieved prominence in Europe as a soloist and chamber musician.
Viviana Sofronitsky is a Russian and Canadian classical pianist. Born in Moscow, her father was the Soviet-Russian pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky.
Sergei Istomin is a cellist and a viola da gamba player. He began his violoncello studies at the age of six at the Gnessin School for gifted children in Moscow, Russia, where he obtained his bachelor's degree. He completed his master's degree at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the class of Valentin Feigin and then later his post-graduate studies with Catharina Meints Caldwell at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and August Wenzinger at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute (BPI). In 2018 he received his Doctor of Arts (Music) degree at the Ghent University, Belgium. His doctoral thesis "Variations on a Rococo theme, Op.33: Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Fitzenhagen: a creative collaboration. Moscow and Saint Petersburg violoncello schools in the light of European traditions: a historical and textological clarification" is in the field of historically informed performance practice and musicology.
The 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments - the inaugural edition of the International Chopin Competition in the piano class, which was held on September 2–14, 2018 in Warsaw on period instruments, organised by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute.
Fryderyk Buchholtz – piano maker, organ maker, guild master, guild elder (1825-1826), born on May 16, 1792 Olsztynek, died on May 15, 1837 in Warsaw.
Kristian Bezuidenhout is an Australian pianist, who specializes in performances on early keyboard instruments.
