30 Most Famous Pianists of All Time

Piano by Chris from Pixabay. Wikimedia Commons.

30 Most Famous Pianists of All Time

Did you know that piano history stretches back as far as the 11^th century? Based on its origins, it is categorized as a string instrument since sound emanates from the vibration of its strings. A hammer mechanism is used to hit the strings. The modern piano has developed over time, with the invention being built upon pre-existing concepts. For instance, the dulcimer, used as early as the 11^th century, is considered a predecessor of the piano. It was a box with strings on top, and a hammer was used to hit the strings to produce sound. The harpsichord, created around 1500, had an almost similar technique.

 However, the modern piano concept is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori who invented the ‘clavicembalo col piano e forte’ in Italy, around 1709. The term translates to a harpsichord with soft and loud noises.’ The name has been shortened to the piano. With 52 white and 36 black keys, the piano covers a remarkably wide range of musical scales, often needing no accompaniment to create beautiful symphonies.

It can thus be used as a solo instrument, or otherwise. To state that playing the piano is difficult is subject to debate, but frankly, hand coordination can be quite demanding if you’re going to master the art of the piano. The best pianists of all time, however, not only possessed practical playing skills, but also remarkable invention, creativity, and performance abilities. Some, like Mozart, were child prodigies, and not only played, but also composed great piano works.  Here are the 30 most famous pianists of all time, cutting across varied genres and times in history!

1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart by Barbara Krofft. Wikimedia Commons.

Mozart, as he is commonly known, was, and remains to be one of the most prolific composers and pianists of all time, living through the Classical period. He was a child prodigy, no doubt, playing the piano with his father at the age of 4, and composing simple pieces by the age of 5! He wrote his first symphony at the age of 8. He was born in Salzburg on 27 January 1756 to German composer and violinist Leopold Mozart, and Anna Walburga Mozart. His father was his primary teacher and his sister, Anna Maria, also played piano. The two siblings toured Europe, giving performances as child prodigies.

 It was during these tours that Mozart met with yet another acclaimed composer, Johann Christian Bach, who became a significant influence on his art. Mozart was incredibly gifted, as he composed masterpieces in almost all genres, including concertos, symphonies, operas, chamber music for string quartets, sonatas, and masses. Don Giovanni and the Marriage of Figaro include some of his most famous opera creations. Although he didn’t live long, succumbing to illness at the age of 35, Mozart’s compositions add up to more than 800 pieces! Many pianists and orchestras around the world have performed his pieces.

Read more on the Top 10 Interesting Facts about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

2. Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven by Karl Joseph. Wikimedia Commons.

Beethoven, born on 17 December 1770 in Bonn, was a German pianist and composer.  The name is no surprise to the music world as he is considered one of the most talented virtuoso pianists and composers of his era. Just like Mozart, Beethoven was first taught by his father, Johann van Beethoven, who was very tough on him. It is also cited that his father often physically abused him. Still at Bonn, he was also taught by Christian Gottlob Neefe, a German opera composer, and conductor. Beethoven would later on move to Vienna at the age of 21, where he studied further under Franz Joseph Hadyn, an Austrian composer. Beethoven later lost his hearing around 1812, and performing at orchestras became difficult. However, he still composed music!

For more on Beethoven, check out the Top 15 Facts about Ludwig Beethoven.

3. Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt by Nadar. Wikimedia Commons.

Liszt was a virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era. He was born on 22 October 1811 in Sopron, Austria.  His father, Adam Liszt played several instruments including the piano, guitar, cello, and violin. Adam also knew Beethoven’s teacher, Joseph Hadyn, and Beethoven too personally. Liszt started learning piano from his father at the age of 7, and by 8, he had begun composing simple pieces. He’d perform in concerts, and later got sponsored to study music in Vienna.

At Vienna, Carl Czerny, a pupil of Beethoven, tutored him. Czerny was an Austrian composer and pianist, and a teacher of music. Liszt was taught with the works of Beethoven, and Sebastian Bach. His public debut was at a concert on 1 December 1822 and later toured Europe, giving brilliant performances of his compositions and adaptations from other composers. An outstanding feature of Liszt was his impressionistic translation of music. His teacher, Czerny, remarked that he played with great feeling. Liszt is also credited for the creation of symphonic poems, a product of romanticism.

4. Arthur Rubinstein

Arthur Rubinstein (1906). Sourced from Wikimedia Commons.

Arthur Rubinstein was a Polish-American pianist, widely regarded as one of the best Frederic Chopin interpreters of his time. He was born to a Jewish family on 28 January 1887, in Lodz which at the time was part of the Russian Empire. As he watched his elder sister play the piano, his love for the instrument became apparent. By the age of 4 years, he was already playing the piano. At 7 years, he was playing works of Mozart and Franz Schubert.

His genius was evident even in languages, as he could speak 8 of these fluently. His sharp memory has been described as photographic, and according to his memoirs, he learned Cesar Franck’s Symphonic Variations on a train, without a piano. His career spanned recitals, chamber music, and concert soloism. He made several studio recordings, including Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 10. Rubinstein did public performances for 8 decades, performing for charity organizations too.

5. Johann Sebastian Bach

J.S Bach by Elias Gottlob. Wikimedia Commons.

Sebastian Bach was a German composer, credited for brilliant instrumental, orchestral, organ, and keyboard works. He was born on 31 March 1685 to a city musician in Eisenach. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach was the director of town musicians and it is cited that he taught Bach basic music theory. Bach came from a family of musicians, with his eldest brother Christoph Bach, an organist, and his cousin, Ludwig Bach, a renowned composer, and violinist. He was orphaned at the age of 10, and at 15, he went to Luneburg to continue his music studies. Bach composed a variety of works, including passions and oratorios for Lutheran churches, cantatas, motets, chorale harmonizations, keyboard, orchestral and chamber music, violin concertos, and orchestral suites.

6. Frederic Chopin

Chopin by Maria Wodzinska. Wikimedia Commons.

Chopin was a Polish virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period. He was a child prodigy and his poetic genius has been considered to be ‘without equal’ in his time. He composed primarily for solo piano, although he wrote chamber music and a few piano concertos as well. Some of his influences include Mozart, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Schubert. Over 200 of his compositions have survived, and great pianists, including Arthur Rubinstein, have recorded many of his works.

Read more on Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Frederic Chopin.

7. Dinu Lipatti

Dinu Lipatti, 1950. Wikimedia Commons.

Constantin ‘Dinu’ Lipatti was born on 1 April 1917 into a musical family in Bucharest. His father was a violinist and his mother was a pianist. Lipatti studied music from his childhood under several tutors and institutions to become one of the leading classical pianists in history. He also composed a few works, including a concerto for organ and piano, Les Tziganes (a symphonic suite), 6 sonatas for Scarlatti, and a piano sonata in D minor, just to mention a few.

Lipatti was known to be a perfectionist, and he would practice for years before giving a major performance. For instance, he practiced for four years before performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5! He is credited for his near-perfect interpretations of Chopin and Mozart, and his precise technique was notable. He was posthumously elected as a member of the Romanian Academy, having died at the age of 33.

8. Vladimir Horowitz

Vladimir Horowitz by Roland Gerrits. Wikimedia Commons.

Vladimir was a Russian-born virtuoso classical pianist and a prolific interpreter of compositions.  He is also remembered for his exhilarating performances, and his ability to excite the audience. He was born on October 1 1903 in Kyiv to assimilated Jews. He was the youngest in a family of four. His mother was a pianist, and she taught him piano from an early age. His uncle was a friend of Russian pianist and composer Alexander Scriabin, and he arranged that Vladimir plays for him at the age of 10. Scriabin was impressed, calling him ‘extremely talented’.

His first solo recital was in 1920, and after that he went on to tour Russia, playing piano.  He’d later play in Berlin, Paros, New York, and London, becoming an international sensation. Vladimir made recordings, including Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.23, and Brahms’s Piano Concerto No.2. He died of a heart attack in 1989, aged 86. He won numerous Grammy Awards for Best Classical Performance, Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra and without Orchestra, and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1920.

Top 10 Facts about Vladimir Horowitz.

9. Sergei Prokofiev

Prokofiev. Sourced from Wikimedia Commons.

Sergei Prokofiev was a Russian composer and pianist, regarded as one of the greatest composers of the 20^th century. He was born on 27 April 1891 in Sonstsovka, which is in present-day Ukraine. His mother Maria Zhitkova was taking piano lessons during Prokofiev’s early childhood, having resolved to dedicate her life to music. Prokofiev took interest in her mother’s piano practice in the evenings and learned to play.

At the age of 5, he wrote a simple piano composition. By the age of 9, he was composing his first opera, The Giant. He had a particular interest in opera music, and he composed several pieces including The Gambler, The love for three oranges, and The fiery angel. He also wrote symphonies, ballets, cello, piano and violin concertos, and piano sonatas. He won six Stalin prizes for his compositions and Lenin Prize for Symphony No.7 in 1957.

10. Franz Peter Schubert

Schubert by Hadi Karimi. Wikimedia Commons.

Schubert was an Austrian composer and pianist. He was born on 31 January 1797 in present-day Vienna. His father started teaching him the violin at the age of 8, and his brother gave him piano lessons. He was incredibly talented and by the time he was 11, he had encountered works by Mozart, Hadyn, and Beethoven, which inspired him in his musical career. Although it was short, he composed a large body of the piano, chamber music, operas, symphonies, and incidental music. His best-known works include Symphony No. 8 in B minor, the ‘Great’ Symphony No.9 in C major, Piano Quintet in A major, and the three last piano sonatas, the opera Fierrabas.

11. Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms by C.Brasch. Wikimedia Commons.

Brahms was a German composer and virtuoso pianist in the late 19^th-century, Romantic era. He is sometimes listed alongside Beethoven and Sebastian Bach as one of the ‘Three Bs’ of music. He was born on 7 May 1833 in Hamburg, but he spent most of his career years in Vienna. His father, Johann Jacob Brahms, a musician himself, played with the Hamburg Philharmonic Society. He taught Brahms his first music lessons with the cello and violin. At the age of 7, Brahms began studying the piano with Otto Friedrich and at the age of 10, he made his private concert debut with a piano quartet by Mozart.

Between 1854 and 1888, he was under the tutorship of Eduard Marxsen, a pianist, and composer, who had close relations with Beethoven and Franz Schubert. Inevitably, Brahms learned the composing traditions of the two. Some of his works have been said to bear Beethoven’s strong influence. Besides performance, he composed several major works. For orchestra, he composed two piano concertos, a violin concert, four symphonies, and a double concerto for cello and violin. He also wrote chamber works, including two string quintets, a clarinet quintet, and three string quartets, just to mention some. He never wrote an opera.

12. Alexander Scriabin

Scriabin. Sourced from Wikimedia Commons.

Scriabin was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist in the early 20^th century. He is credited as a main Russian symbolist composer and regarded as one of the most controversial pianists of his time. He was largely innovative, creating a color-coded circle of fifths from his fascination with associating colors with harmonic tunes. He employed light, poetry, dance, and color to achieve a kind of ecstasy in his works, and for this, he stands out. From an early, his love for the piano and performance was apparent. He would conduct operas with puppets with his friends and even built simple pianos.

He studied under Nikolai Sergeyevich Zverev, a strict Russian pianist and teacher. Scriabin is said to have had very small hands that barely stretched to a ninth! He was however determined to outshine his competitors while studying at the Moscow Conservatory and he is recorded to have injured his right hand while practicing Franz Liszt in a challenge. He was greatly influenced by Frederic Chopin, and his compositions resemble his style. He wrote mostly for solo piano and orchestra. Some of his most famous works include The Poem of Ecstasy and Prometheus: Poem of Fire. His son Julian was a child prodigy and pianist but he died at age 11 by drowning.

13. Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy by Nadar. Wikimedia Commons.

Debussy was a French composer and pianist in the late 19^th century. He has been associated with impressionism in music, despite his strong objection to the use of the term during his lifetime. Impressionism was a term used in paintings depicting an overall impression rather than clear details. Most of his pieces had titles invoking nature, such as ‘reflets dans l’eau’ (reflections in the water). He was greatly influenced by Alexis-Emmanuel Chabrier, a French Romantic composer, and pianist.

Debussy held Frederic Chopin in high regard too, referring to him as the greatest of them all. Although he is mostly renowned for his innovative compositions, his piano-playing skills were equally great. Some of his most famous works include La Mer and orchestral works such as Nocturnes and Images. His piano works include sets of 12 Etudes and 24 preludes. Debussy is regarded as one of the most influential romantic composers of the early 20^th century. Some of the composers he greatly influenced include George Benjamin and Bela Bartok.

14. Sergei Rachmaninoff

Rachmaninoff, early 1900s. Wikimedia Commons.

Sergei, born on 20 March 1873, was a Russian-American virtuoso pianist and composer, widely regarded as one of the greatest of his time. His parents were pianists, and by the age of 4, he was already learning to play. He later joined the Moscow Conservatory, where he continued to study alongside Sergey Taneyev and Anton Arensky, both Russian pianists.

By the time he was graduating, he had composed some of his most popular works. Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, which he composed while recovering from depression caused by the failed premiere of his Symphony No.1 in 1897, was one of his best-received works. He did not compose much, but some of his major pieces include Symphony No.3, and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Sergei is also known to have had incredibly large hands, and Cyril Smith, a concerto pianist in the 1950s cites that he could play the twelfth with his left hand.

15. Glenn Gould

Glenn Gould by Don Hunstein. Wikimedia Commons.

Glenn Gould was one of the most acclaimed pianists of the 20^th century, considered a genius whose technique and musical attitudes set him apart from many. He was a Canadian classical pianist, born in Toronto on September 25, 1932. His love for music was evident from an early age, and he learned to read music before he could words! He first practiced with his mother, before attending the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto at the age of 10. Glenn studied piano with Alberto Guerrero, a Chilean pianist, and composer. He is said to have had a remarkable memory, and he relied on this more than he did on practice.

Although Glenn’s repertoire was diverse, with works of Brahms, Mozart, Hadyn, Beethoven, and Scriabin, he was best known for his near-perfect interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach. Most of his recordings were Bach. A rather unusual feature was his uncontrollable humming as he played during recordings, and sometimes his background vocalizing could not be edited out. This is attributed to his mother’s training in singing everything he played. Despite the occasional criticism because of this, Glenn was held to be a musical genius of his time, and in 1983, he was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Top 10 Facts about Glenn Gould.

16. Alfred Cortot

Alfred Cortot (seated) with French violinist Jacques Thibaud. Sourced from Wikimedia Commons.

Cortot was a French classical pianist and conductor; one of the most renowned from the 20^th century. His piano trio with cellist Pablo Casals and violinist Jacques Thibaud was the leading one in his era, especially for French musical culture. He attended the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with Emile Decombes, a French pianist and one of Frederic Chopin’s pupils. Cortot has been credited for his insightful interpretations of Schumann, Debussy, and Chopin. Some of his greatest recordings include Franz Liszt’s Sonata in B minor and Saint-Saens’ Etude en form de valse. He is credited for founding the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris in 1919, which is now a leading music school in Paris.

17. Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss by Joseph Gaylord. Wikimedia Commons.

Strauss was a Romantic-era German pianist, composer, and conductor, mostly known for his incredible tone poems and operas. He is widely considered a successor of Franz Liszt. He was born on 11 June 1864 in Munich. His father was a horn player at a court opera, and at the age of 4, Strauss began learning how to play the piano with August Tombo, who was a harpist too at the Munich Court Orchestra. At the age of 6, he wrote his first composition. His musical career was short, spanning over 8 years.

He however achieved considerable success in composing tone poems and operas and performing classic interpretations of Franz Liszt, Wagner, and Mozart. Some of his major works include Don Juan, Don Quixote, Death and Transfiguration, Symphonia Domestica, and the opera Salome. He received the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal in 1936.

Top 11 Remarkable Facts about Richard Strauss.

18. Ray Charles

Ray Charles (2003) by Victor Diaz. Wikimedia Commons.

Ray Charles is considered one of the most influential musical geniuses of all time. His musical abilities included the piano, singing, composition, and the saxophone. He was one of the most important pioneers of soul music in the 1950s, and his style comprised jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel. He is known to have gone blind at the age of 7 after suffering an illness, but this did not stop him from pursuing his love for performance. He attended the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine. He learned how to use braille music, and practiced playing the classical piano music of Beethoven, Mozart, and Sebastian Bach.

 Ray played the piano for bands in theaters after leaving school, but he was keen to form his band, and in 1948, he was in a trio band as a pianist. Their first hit was ‘Confession Blues.’ He was greatly influenced by Nat King Cole, another iconic American jazz pianist, and singer. Some of his major works include Georgia on my Mind, I’ve got a woman, This little girl of mine, and Hallelujah I love her so. Ray had a personal relationship with Frank Sinatra and Quincy Jones. He is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, 18 Grammy Awards (posthumously), the Polar Music Prize, and the Kennedy Center Honors. He was inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame in 2022.

19. Nina Simone

Nina Simone (1982) by Roland Godefroy. Wikimedia Commons.

Nina Simone, whose real name was he was an African American singer, pianist, composer, and songwriter. She is considered one of the most iconic jazz pianists and musicians of all time. Her style was a fusion of jazz, classical, gospel, blues, and pop. Her classical inclusion particularly featured Johann Sebastian Bach’s style. Nina had always longed to become a concert pianist, and despite her low financial status, she would later be in the Juilliard School of Music in New York with the help of her friends. She first played piano in church, and her first classical recital was at the age of 12. Nina, while at the Juilliard School of Music, applied for the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia but didn’t get in. She was disappointed and tied her rejection to racism, a claim that the staff at Curtis denied.

 She then started taking private lessons with Vladimir Sokoloff. To pay her lesson fees, she began playing at a bar and had to change her name to Nina Simone. Her mother would not have approved of her playing secular music. Her intense stage presence when she played piano and sang earned her the name ‘High Priestess of Soul.’ She would later record her songs, some of which contributed to the civil rights movement. ‘Mississippi Goddam’ was her first civil rights-themed song, and she later cited that it harmed her career, affecting the release of her music. Her renditions of Billie Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’ and Pastel Blue’s ‘Sinnerman’ are some of her most popular covers. Simone was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

10 of the Most Famous Jazz Singers.

20. Clara Schumann

Clara Schumann by Franz Hanfstaengl. Wikimedia Commons.

Schumann was a German composer and pianist in the Romantic era, with one of the longest concert careers spanning over 61 years. Her parents were pianists, and her father began teaching her to play piano at an early age. She was taught to play by ear and memorize and was one of the first pianists to play in concerts from memory. She was a child prodigy, and by age 11 she was touring Paris, Vienna, and other cities with her father.

Her compositions include chamber music, songs, choral pieces, solo piano pieces, and piano concertos. Her husband, Robert Schumann was a pianist and composer as well, and the two had 8 children.  She made numerous concert tours in Europe for decades after her husband’s early death. She is also credited for inspiring and teaching many women to play the piano during her lifetime. She suffered a stroke in 1896 and died aged 76. She was buried next to her husband.

21. Camille Saint-Saens

Saint-Saens by Petit Pierre. Wikimedia Commons.

Camille was a prolific French pianist, organist, and composer of the Romantic era considered a musical prodigy of his time. He was born on 9 December 1835 in Paris. His musical genius was evident at an early age, as he could play perfect pitch at age 4. His aunt taught him basic piano, and at the age of 7, he began to study under Camille-Marie Stamaty, a French pianist and teacher.

He made his concert debut at the age of 10, with Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. Johann Sebastian Bach is one of his most revered pianists, and he loved his compositions. He played as a church organist at Saint-Merri, Paris, and later at La Madeleine, before leaving to become a freelance pianist and composer. Some of his best works include the opera Samson and Delilah, the Third Violin Concerto, the Third Organ Symphony, and The Carnival of the Animals. He taught Gabriel Faure and Maurice Ravel.

Most Famous Modern time Pianists

22. Anna Federova

Anna Fedorova by J. Bernardo. Wikimedia Commons.

Anna Federova was born on February 27, 1990, in Kyiv to concert musicians Tatiana and Boris Federova. She is a renowned Ukrainian concert pianist, performing as a soloist and chamber musician with leading orchestras all around the world. She has performed in grand concert halls of the USA, France, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, Germany, Netherlands, UK, Italy, Mexico, and Ukraine, among others. She began playing at the age of 5 under the training of her parents, and she was determined to become a pianist from an early age. Her national debut was at the age of 7, with the National Philharmonic Society of Ukraine.  She studied music in several institutions including the Royal College of Music in London under the famous Norma Fisher. Federova’s style has been described by music critics as a ‘sweet melody with a wild expression.’ She is a David Young Piano Prize Holder.

23. Martha Argerich

Martha Argerich by Prensa TV. Wikimedia Commons.

Martha Argerich is an Argentinian classical concert pianist, whose prowess in performance has earned her general repute as one of the greatest of all time. She was born on 5 June 1941 in Buenos Aires. She began learning piano at the age of 3, and at the age of 5, came under the tutorship of Vincenzo Scaramuzza, an Italian pianist. Her first concert was at the age of 8, playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 in C major.

After moving to Europe in 1955, she studied with Friedrich Gulda, Stefan Askenase, and Maria Curcio, all classical pianists. At age 24, she won the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1965, attaining international recognition.  Argerich has not only performed publicly to large audiences all over Europe, but also recorded works by Liszt, Chopin, Brahms, and Prokofiev. She has won Grammy Awards for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra (2000 and 2006), and Best Chamber Music Performance, and has been voted into Gramophone’s Hall of Fame (2012).

24. Krystian Zimerman

Krystian Zimerman by Bartłomiej Barczyk -2018. Wikimedia Commons.

Krystian is a Polish-Swiss concert pianist and conductor, regarded as one of the best of his time. His win at the IX International Chopin Piano Competition in 1975 earned him much international recognition and he has since performed with some of the best orchestras around the world. He was born on 5 December 1956 in southern Poland to a pianist father who began teaching him to play at the age of 5. He then studied under Andrzej Jasinki, a Polish pianist.

He performed with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1976 and debuted in the USA with the New York Philharmonic in 1979. His performances and interpretations of Chopin, Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart have earned him great admiration as a skilled pianist and performer. His best-known recordings include the Brahms concerti and the piano concerti of Chopin. He has worked with many renowned conductors and artists including Carlo Maria Giulini, Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado, and Simon Rattle, just to mention a few. He won the Praemium Imperiale (Japan) in 2022

25. Lang Lang

Lang Lang by Andreas Praefcke. Wikimedia Commons.

Lang Lang is one of the most critically acclaimed Chinese classical pianists, born on 14 June 1982. He is the first Chinese pianist to play with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics. He is considered a top classical musician of modern times.  His parents were musicians, and he started playing the piano at the age of 3. He studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and in 1995, he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in Japan, playing the Frederic Chopin etudes.

At the age of 14, he was featured in China National Symphony’s inaugural concert. He moved to the USA in 1997 and joined the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His career has featured collaborations with major orchestras, open-air performances in venues such as Central Park New York, major events such as the Grammy Awards, soundtracks, and partnerships. Lang’s charm and youthful energy on stage add to his exquisite piano performance thrill. He has won numerous awards for his achievements, including a Grammy Award nomination for his recording of Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 4. He was listed in Gramophone magazine’s Hall of Fame in 2012.

See the Top 10 Surprising Facts about Lang Lang.

26. Billy Joel

Billy Joel by slgckgc. Wikimedia Commons.

Famously known as the ‘Piano Man’, Billy Joel is an internationally recognized pianist, singer, and songwriter. Besides the fact that his nickname is also the title of his probably best-known song, it also says much about him when it comes to his performances. Born in the Bronx on May 9, 1949, he was named William Martin Joel. His father was a classical pianist, and Joel’s mother insisted that he begin learning how to play the piano at the age of 4. He would later drop out of school to pursue a career in music, playing piano in bars to earn a living. Ray Charles is one of Billy’s greatest idols, and he also drew inspiration for music from The Beatles.  He is one of the best-selling artists of all time, with over 160 million records sold. He has won 6 Grammy Awards and is the only performing artist to have played at both Yankee and Shea stadiums.

27. Angela Hewitt

Angela Hewitt by Mykola Swarnyk. Wikimedia Commons.

Angela Hewitt, born on July 26, 1958, is a Canadian classical pianist, famous for her precise Sebastian Bach interpretations. Under the tutorship of her mother, she began playing the piano at the age of 3! At the age of 9, she made her debut full recital at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. She continued to study there, and later under French pianist Jean-Paul Sevilla. In 1978, she won an honorable mention at the X International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. She won first prize in the Toronto International Bach Competition in 1985.

Angela has recorded all major keyboard works of Bach, having begun in 1994 and completed in 2005. She has also recorded works by Beethoven, Chopin, Robert Schumann, Chopin, and Claude Debussy, just to mention a few. She has been awarded numerous honors, including the National Arts Center Award (2002), BBC Radio 3 Listener’s Award (2010), and Companion of the Order of Canada (2015).

See the 10 Best Piano Bars in Washington D.C

28. Vladimir Ashkenazy

Vladimir Ashkenazy by Che. Wikimedia Commons.

Ashkenazy, born on 6 July 1937, is an internationally acclaimed solo pianist, conductor, and chamber music performer. Although he is originally from Russia, he has resided in Switzerland since 1978. Considered to have been a child prodigy, he began playing the piano at the age of 6, and at 8, he joined the Central Music School where he studied with Anaida Sumbatyan, an Armenian pianist. He then attended the Moscow Conservatory and studied with Russian pianist Lev Oborin.

At the age of 18, he won second prize in the V International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. Ashkenazy has not only performed with renowned orchestras, but also recorded numerous classical and romantic works including sonatas by Beethoven, solo piano works by Chopin, complete piano concertos by Mozart, the complete piano works by Rachmaninoff, and complete sonatas by Scriabin. He has won five Grammy Awards and Iceland’s Order of the Falcon, In 2020, he retired from public performance.

29. Mitsuko Uchida

Performance by Mitsuko Uchida (center) by Ishai.R. Wikimedia Commons.

Mitsuko is a Japanese-British classical pianist and conductor, and one of the most notable female pianists of our time. She is especially noted for her classic interpretations of Franz Schubert and Mozart, some of the greatest pianists and composers of all time. She was in Atami, in Japan on 20 December 1948, but moved to Vienna at the age of 12. There, she joined the Vienna Academy of Music and studied with pianists Stefan Askesanse and Wilhelm Kempff.  She also later studied with Maria Curcio, an Italian classical pianist, and teacher.

Mitsuko won second place in the VIII International Chopin Piano Competition in 1970, and the Leeds Piano Competition in 1975. She has recorded all of Mozart’s piano sonatas! This earned her a Gramophone Award in 1989. She won yet another Grammy Award in 2011 for her 2009 recording of the Mozart Piano concertos no.23 and 24. Mitsuko has conducted several major orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, and the English Chamber Orchestra. She is a recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, which is one of the most prestigious honors in classical music. Other previous recipients include Johannes Brahms in 1877 and Richard Strauss in 1936.

30. Ludovico Einaudi

Ludovico Einaudi in Tehran by Tasnim News Agency. Wikimedia Commons.

Ludovico is an Italian pianist and composer, born on 23 November 1955 in Turin, Piedmont. His father was a pianist and opera conductor, and his mother used to play piano for him as a child. He was already composing music as a teenager. He received his core music training at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan. After graduating in 1982, he spent time composing chamber and orchestral works, and soon his work gained international recognition on platforms such as Lincoln Center and Tanglewood Music Festival. Ludovico, having begun as a classical composer, soon started incorporating other genres such as folk and pop music.

He has used his unique style to compose major film soundtracks, and some have won international awards. He composed the scores for ‘The Intouchables’, ‘I’m Still Here’, and the Black Swan trailer, and his music was used in the score for the Academy Award-winning films such as ‘The Father’ and ‘Nomadland.’ He is signed to Decca Records and has released several works, such as the album ‘In a Time Lapse’ in 2013.  Other studio albums include Stanze, Le Onde, I Giorni, and Elements.