- Video Game Pianist
The Video Game Pianist, also known as VGP, The Blindfolded Pianist, or his real name Martin Leung, is one of the first pianists to gain worldwide recognition for playing popular video game music on the piano, both in concert venues and in online videos. Unlike many recognized musicians, Video Game Pianist's breakthrough occurred almost entirely online when, on May 10th, 2004, … - Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was an African American jazz composer, pianist, and band leader who has been one of the most influential figures in jazz, if not in all American music. As a composer and a band leader especially, Ellington's reputation has increased since his death, with thematic repackagings of his signature music often becoming best-sellers. A man of suave demeanor and puckish wit that masked occasional brusqueness, … - Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12 1940 in Chicago, Illinois) is an Academy Award and multiple Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist and composer. Hancock is one of jazz music's most important and influential pianists and composers. He embraced elements of rock, funk, and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet", Hancock helped redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section, … - Bill Evans
William John Evans (better known as Bill Evans) (August 16, 1929 - September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and one of the most famous of the 20th century; he remains one of the major influences on post-1950s jazz piano. His use of impressionist harmony, his inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire and his syncopated and polyrhythmic melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists, including Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, … - Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk (October 10, 1917 - February 17, 1982) was a jazz pianist and composer. Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire (including his classic works "'Round Midnight" and "Blue Monk"). He is often regarded as a founder of bebop, although his playing style evolved away from the form. His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, … - Ray Charles
Ray Charles was the stage name of Ray Charles Robinson, a pioneering American pianist and soul musician who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues. He brought a soulful sound to country music, pop standards, and a rendition of "America the Beautiful" that Ed Bradley of "60 Minutes" called the "definitive version of the song, an American anthem - a classic, … - Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer of the Romantic period. He was a renowned performer throughout Europe during the 19th century, noted especially for his showmanship and great skill with the piano. Today, he is considered to be one of the greatest pianists in history, despite the fact that no recordings of his playing exist. Liszt is frequently credited with re-defining piano playing itself, and his influence is still visible today, … - Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March, 1947) is a five-time Grammy and one-time Academy Award-winning English pop/rock singer, composer and pianist. In his four-decade career, John has been one of the dominant forces in rock and popular music, especially in the 1970s. John has sold more than 250 million albums plus hundreds of millions of singles, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. - Lang Lang
Lang Lang (born June 14, 1982) is a virtuoso pianist from Shenyang, China. - Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, CC, CQ, O.Ont. (b. August 15, 1925, Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. Oscar Peterson is considered by some critics to be one of the greatest jazz piano players of all time. His virtuosity and command of the piano have routinely stunned audiences worldwide for more than fifty years. - Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (born June 12, 1941) is a multiple Grammy Award winning American jazz pianist/keyboardist and composer. He is arguably best known for his work during the 1970s in the genre of jazz fusion, although his contributions to straight-ahead jazz have been tremendous. He participated in the birth of the electric fusion movement as a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, and in the 1970s formed Return to Forever. - Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven, (baptized December 17, 1770 - March 26, 1827) was a German composer. He is regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of music, and was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music. His music and his reputation inspired — and in many cases intimidated — ensuing generations of composers, musicians, and audiences. - Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (June 8, 1810 - July 29, 1856) was a German composer and pianist. He was one of the most famous Romantic composers of the nineteenth century, as well as a famous music critic. An intellectual as well as an aesthete, his music reflects the deeply personal nature of Romanticism. Introspective and often whimsical, his early music was an attempt to break with the tradition of classical forms and structure which he thought too restrictive. - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (baptized Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. His output of over 600 compositions includes works widely acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. Mozart is among the most enduringly popular of European composers and many of his works are part of the standard concert repertoire. - Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett (born May 8 1945 in Allentown, Pennsylvania) is an American pianist and composer. He is ethnically Hungarian and Irish. His career started with Art Blakey, Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in both classical music and jazz, as a group leader and a solo performer. His improvisation technique combines not only jazz, but also other forms of music, especially classical, gospel, blues, … - Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein (August 25 1918 – October 14 1990) was an American conductor, composer, and pianist. He was the first conductor born in the United States of America to receive world-wide acclaim, and is known for both his conducting of the New York Philharmonic, including the acclaimed "Young People's Concerts" series, and his multiple compositions, including "West Side Story", … - George Gershwin
George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 - July 11, 1937) was an American composer. He wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works in collaboration with his elder brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin. George Gershwin composed both for Broadway and for the classical concert hall. He also wrote popular songs with success. Many of his compositions have been used on television and in numerous films, and many became jazz standards. - Norah Jones
Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30 1979 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and occasional actress. Jones's career was launched with the massive success of her 2002 debut album "Come Away with Me", a contemporary pop album with a sensual, plaintive soul/folk/country tinge, that sold over twenty million copies worldwide and received six Grammy Awards, with Jones winning "Best New Artist". - Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel (born May 9, 1949, in the Bronx, New York, USA) is an American singer, pianist, songwriter, and composer. He released his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973. According to the RIAA, he is the sixth best selling artist in the United States. Joel had Top 10 hits in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, is a six-time Grammy Award winner and has sold in excess of 150 million albums worldwide. He was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (Class of 1992), … - Dr. John
Dr. John is the stage name of Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (born November 21, 1940), a colourful pianist, singer, and songwriter, whose music spans, and often combines, blues, boogie woogie, and rock and roll. - Dave Brubeck
David Warren Brubeck (born December 6, 1920 in Concord, California), better known as Dave Brubeck, is a U.S. jazz pianist. Often regarded as a genius in his field, he has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills. Much of his music employs unusual time signatures. - Glenn Gould
Glenn Herbert Gould (birth name "Glenn Herbert Gold") (September 25, 1932 - October 4, 1982) was a Canadian pianist, noted especially for his recordings of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He gave up concert performances in 1964, dedicating himself to the recording studio for the rest of his career, and performances for television and radio. - Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus, also known as Charlie Mingus, was an American jazz bassist, composer, bandleader, and occasional pianist. He was also known for his activism against racial injustice. Mingus is highly ranked among the composers and performers of jazz, and he recorded many highly regarded albums. Dozens of musicians passed through his bands and later went on to impressive careers. - Diana Krall
Singer/pianist Diana Krall got her musical education when she was growing up in Nanaimo, British Columbia, from the classical piano lessons she began at age four and in her high school jazz band, but mostly from her father, a stride piano player with an extensive record collection. "I think Dad has every recording Fats Waller ever made," she said, "and I tried to learn them all." - Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American R&B, Pop and Gospel singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has been called for many years "The Queen Of Soul", but many also call her "Lady Soul," as well as the more affectionate "Sister Ree." She is renowned for her soul recordings but is also adept at jazz, rock, blues, pop, gospel, and even opera. She is generally regarded as one of the greatest vocalists ever, … - John Williams
John Towner Williams (born February 8 1932) is an American composer, conductor and pianist. In a career that spans six decades, Williams has composed many of the most famous film scores in history, including those for "Jaws", "Star Wars", "Superman", "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Jurassic Park", "Schindler's List", "Hook", "Memoirs of a Geisha", and "Harry Potter". - Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell (September 271924 - July 311966 in New York City) was one of the most influential pianists in the history of jazz. Along with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie he was instrumental in the development of bebop, and his virtuosity as a pianist led many to call him "the Charlie Parker of the piano". - Art Tatum
Arthur Tatum Jr. was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso. Critic Scott Yanow opined that "Tatum's recordings still have the ability to scare modern pianists." The jazz pianist and educator Kenny Barron has commented that "I have every record [Tatum] ever made -- and I try never to listen to them. .. If I did, I'd throw up my hands and give up!" Jean Cocteau dubbed Tatum "a crazed Chopin." Some jazz musicians liked to call him the eighth wonder of the world. - Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys (born Alicia J. Augello-Cook on January 25 1980) is an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, pianist, record producer, actress, philanthropist, and author who has won numerous awards, including nine Grammy Awards, eleven Billboard Music Awards, and three American Music Awards. - Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist and singer-songwriter. She is married to English sound engineer Mark Hawley. Together they have one daughter, Natashya "Tash" Lórien Hawley, born on September 5, 2000. Amos was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few music stars to use a piano as her primary instrument. - Marian McPartland
Marian McPartland (b. March 20, 1918), born Margaret Marian Turner, is a jazz pianist, violinist and host of Mary McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio born in Slough, England. High-profile jazz critic Scott Yanow has said that McPartland is "...a harmonically sophisticated improviser, open to the influence of later stylists including Bill Evans." - Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin (Polish: Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, sometimes "Szopen"; French: Frédéric François Chopin; English surname pronunciation: or ; March 1, 1810, Żelazowa Wola - October 17, 1849, Paris) was a Polish piano composer of the Romantic period. He is widely regarded as one of the most famous, influential, and prolific composers for piano of all time. Chopin was born in the village of Żelazowa Wola, … - Sun Ra
Sun Ra (Born Herman Poole Blount; legal name Le Sony'r Ra; born May 22, 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama, died May 30, 1993 in Birmingham, Alabama) was an innovative jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy", musical compositions and performances. He abandoned his birth name and took on the name and persona of Sun Ra (Ra being the ancient Egyptian god of the Sun). - Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer of concert and film music, as well as an accomplished pianist. Instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, he was widely known as “the dean of American composers.” Copland's music achieved a difficult balance between modern music and American folk styles, and the open, slowly changing harmonies of many of his works are said to evoke the vast American landscape. - Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer, pianist and collector of Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk music. He is considered one of the greatest composers of the 20th century and was also one of the founders of the field of ethnomusicology, the study and ethnography of folk music. - Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff ("Sergej Vasilevič Rakhmaninov", 1 April, 1873 (N.S.) or 20 March 1873 (O.S.) - 28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, one of the last great champions of the Romantic style of European classical music. ("Sergei Rachmaninoff" was the spelling the composer himself used while living in the West throughout the latter half of his life. However, transliterations of his name include "Sergey" or "Serge", … - Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor (born March 15 or March 25, 1929 in New York City) is an American pianist and poet. Along with Ornette Coleman, he is now generally acknowledged to be one of the innovators of free jazz. - Van Cliburn
Van Cliburn was transformed from a highly regarded yet relatively unknown artist to musical superstar faster than any other classical musician in history. Through grand playing in the style of great pianists of the past and the luck of timing, he became a worldwide celebrity in the late 1950s. - Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim (b. November 15, 1942) is a pianist and conductor. He lives in Berlin and holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, and Spain. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina; his parents were Russian Jews. Barenboim first came to fame as a pianist but now is as well-known as a conductor, and for his work with an orchestra of young Arab and Jewish musicians, based in Israel, called the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, … - Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known as Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Although she disliked being categorized, Simone is generally classified as a jazz musician. Her work covers an eclectic variety of musical styles, such as jazz, soul, folk, R&B, gospel, and even pop music. Her vocal style is characterized by passion, breathiness, and tremolo. Simone recorded over 40 live and studio albums, …
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