Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. was an American pianist who, at the age of 23, achieved worldwide recognition when he won the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 during the Cold War. Cliburn's mother, a piano teacher and an accomplished pianist in her own right, discovered him playing at age three, mimicking one of her students and arranged for him to start taking lessons. Cliburn developed a rich, round tone and a singing-voice-like phrasing, having been taught from the start to sing each piece.
Midori Goto, who performs under the mononym Midori, is a Japanese-born American violinist. She made her debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 11 as a surprise guest soloist at the New Year's Eve Gala in 1982. In 1986 her performance at the Tanglewood Music Festival with Leonard Bernstein conducting his own composition made the front-page headlines in The New York Times. Midori became a celebrated child prodigy, and one of the world's preeminent violinists as an adult.
Dame Mitsuko Uchida, DBE is a Japanese-British classical pianist and conductor, born in Japan and naturalised in Britain, particularly noted for her interpretations of Mozart and Schubert.
Ursula Oppens is an American classical concert pianist and educator. She has received five Grammy Award nominations.
Petronel Malan is a South African concert pianist based in the United States.
Olga Vladimirovna Kern is a Russian-American classical pianist. She became an American citizen in 2016.
Emanuel "Manny"Ax is a Grammy-winning American classical pianist. He is a teacher in the Juilliard School.
Rachel Wai-Ching Cheung is a classical pianist from Kowloon, Hong Kong. She has won numerous prizes and awards in Hong Kong and overseas, and performs regularly in Asia, Europe, and North America.
Anastasia Rizikov is a Canadian classical pianist. ...Ms. Rizikov is an extraordinary virtuoso, with abundant technical prowess. But she is more than the sum of ten fingers – she is a consummate artist, born to play, to love the art and act of music-making... was written about her by Renée Silberman at The Beat Magazine, January 21, 2014.
Misha Quint is a Russian-born classical cellist and music director.
Yoonjung "Yoonie" Han is a South Korean-born American classical pianist.
The Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition is based in Salt Lake City, Utah and is the second largest piano competition in the United States.
Daniil Olegovich Trifonov is a Russian pianist and composer. Described by The Globe and Mail as "arguably today's leading classical virtuoso" and by The Times as "without question the most astounding pianist of our age", Trifonov's honors include a Grammy Award win in 2018 and the Gramophone Classical Music Awards' Artist of the Year Award in 2016. The New York Times has noted that "few artists have burst onto the classical music scene in recent years with the incandescence" of Trifonov. He has performed as soloist with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony and the Munich Philharmonic, and has given solo recitals in such venues as Royal Festival Hall, Carnegie Hall, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Berliner Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Concertgebouw, and the Seoul Arts Center.
Nadia Azzi is an American classical pianist of Lebanese-Japanese origin. Fluent in Japanese and English, she began playing piano at age four and a half and has won many awards since then. She currently resides in Los Angeles.
Ching-Yun Hu is a Taiwanese born classical pianist, winner of the 2008 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition, Founder and Artistic Director Yun-Hsiang International Music Festival in Taipei and Winner of the 2012 Golden Melody Award for Best Classical Album.
Robert Blocker, DMA is an American classical pianist, music educator, and university administrator, who has served as Dean of the Yale School of Music since July 1995. He is a Steinway artist.
Roy Eaton is an American pianist and advertising creative. He is cited as the first black American prominent in the field of advertising.
Kate Liu is a Singaporean American classical pianist. On October 20, 2015 she won the third prize, the audience favorite award, and the Polish Radio Award for the best performance of a mazurka in the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland.
Yekwon Sunwoo is a South Korean classical pianist. In 2017, at 28 years old, Sunwoo was the first Korean to win the gold medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He won the Sendai International Music Competition in 2013.
Sophia Agranovich is a Soviet-born American classical concert pianist, Centaur Records recording artist, music educator and artistic director. She holds Bachelor and Master degrees from the Juilliard School, where she taught piano as a teaching fellow. She continued her doctoral studies at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her live performances and discography have won top international awards and critical acclaim. Her albums are charting in top 10 across all musical genres on One World Music Radio and on World Top Radio Airplay Charts. A Steinway Artist, she is concertizing at major venues worldwide, and has been described by Fanfare Magazine as "a bold, daring pianist in the tradition of the Golden Age Romantics" and praised by the American Record Guide for her "magnificent shading and superior musicianship."
