Elisabeth Leonskaja (b. November 23, 1945) is a Georgian pianist, born to a Russian family living in Tbilisi, then the capital of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. She gave her first concert at the age of eleven. In 1964 she began studies in Moscow Conservatory under Jacob Milstein. During her conservatory years she won prizes in competitions in Bucharest, Brussels and Paris.
Alexander von Schlippenbach (* 1938 in Berlin) is a German jazz pianist and composer.
Schlippenbach started to play piano from the age of 8 and went on to study composition at Cologne under Bernd Alois Zimmermann. While studying he started to play with Manfred Schoof. At the age of 28 he founded the Globe Unity Orchestra.
He produced various recordings and worked for German radio channels. He played with many essential players of the European free jazz community, most notably in the "Alexander von Schlippenbach Trio" with drummer Paul Lovens and saxophonist Evan Parker.
Angela Hewitt (born July 26, 1958) is a Canadian classical pianist. She also holds British nationality through her father, Godfrey, who was the cathedral organist in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Angela Hewitt began her piano studies at age 3, performed in public at 4, and won her first music scholarship at 5. Aside from the piano, she also studied violin, recorder, and ballet (at Mme. Toumine's school in Ottawa). Her first recital was in the Royal Conservatory in Toronto at the age of 9. She studied at the Toronto Conservatory from 1964 to 1973.
Arcadi Volodos (Russian: Аркадий Володось, Arcadij Volodos) (born February 24, 1972) is a Russian pianist. His first name is sometimes transliterated Arcady or Arkady. Volodos is renowned for his technical mastery of the instrument's virtuosic repertoire; particularly that of Rachmaninoff, Liszt and his recordings of transcriptions by Vladimir Horowitz.
Born in Leningrad in 1972, he began his musical training studying voice, following the example of his parents, who were singers, and later shifted his emphasis to conducting while a student at the Capilla M.
Sophie Hutchings is Australian pianist and composer. Having begun playing piano young growing up in a musical family, Sophie started writing properly in her teens. Sophie
Neil Angilley is known for his work with Down to the Bone who were nominated for a 'Grammy'. He has also been Musical Director for Vanessa-Mae since 1998 and has played on numerous albums with 'Snowboy and the Latin Section' & 'Negrocan' (nominees for the Ibiza Prize).. He has also appeared as a guest soloist on various albums including 'An Ordinary Day in an Unusual Place' - US3, 'Fuzzy Logic' - David Benoit, and 'Crush' - Richard Elliot.
The name Nelson Goerner is already firmly established as one of the most remarkable pianists of his generation. Born in 1969 in San Pedro in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he revealed his exceptional gifts very early on by teaching himself to read and write before the age of three.
His family – whose diverse origins include Sudeten Germany, Italy, Spain and Bolivia – was not a musical one and there was no school of music and no musical life in their town.
Ivo Pogorelić (Serbian: Иво Погорелић) (born October 20, 1958 in Belgrade, Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia) is a Croatian pianist. He received his first piano lessons in Belgrade when he was seven. Five years later, he was invited to Moscow to continue his studies at the Central Music School with Evgeny Timakin. Later he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory. In 1976 he began studying intensively with the pianist and teacher Aliza Kezeradze, who passed on to him the tradition of the Liszt-Siloti school. They were married from 1980 until her death in 1996.