Art of the Piano Festival and Foundation

A brief history of our ground-breaking and award-winning work.

Since its inception in 2011, Art of the Piano has grown immensely over the years, in a variety of ways. We started out in Cincinnati with a handful of applicants, which—to our delight—eventually blossomed to over 200 young pianists hoping to attend each year.

A significant many of them have gone on to achieve great success: Lang Lang Scholars, laureates of the Cliburn competition, the Chopin competition, and many other competitions throughout the US, Asia and Europe. They have received Grammy nominations, and much more. They come to us, or have graduated from some of the most prestigious music schools in the world. Their blooming careers are taking them all over the globe.

Over the years, we’ve brightened the musical lives of nearly 400 gifted pianists from all over the world. 

They traveled far and wide to participate in Art of the Piano, arriving in Cincinnati (or online) from various parts of the US and Canada, as well as Australia, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Poland, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, and Ukraine. What they found here was inspiration in hundreds of hours of masterclasses by today’s best teachers, world-class artist recitals, and scintillating performances by their fellow students.

For our current Young Artists roster click here.

Past faculty-artists have included:

Barry Douglas, Leon Fleisher, Vladimir Feltsman, Olga Kern, Stephen Prutsman, Lera Auerbach, Simone Dinnerstein, Sergei Babayan, Aaron Diehl, William Grant Naboré.  For a current lineup, click here.

Art of the Piano has also expanded by offering the first-ever competition for Black pianists, the Nina Simone Piano Competition.

It launched in June 2023, with a thrilling concerto round finale in partnership with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in October 2023.

click here to learn more about the competition