Pianist

A pianist (/ˈpiːənᵻst/ PEE-ə-nist, /ˈpjænᵻst/ PYAN-ist) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Most forms of Western music can make use of the piano. Consequently, pianists have a wide variety of repertoire and styles to choose from, including traditionally classical music, jazz, blues and all sorts of popular music, including rock music. Most pianists can, to a certain extent, play other keyboard-related instruments such as the synthesizer, harpsichord, celesta and the organ.

Pianists past and present

Modern classical pianists dedicate their careers to performing, recording, teaching, researching as well as learning new works/expanding their repertoire. They generally do not write or transcribe music as pianists did in the 19th century. Some classical pianists might specialize in accompaniment and chamber music while others (relatively few) will perform as full-time piano soloists.

Classical

Mozart could be considered the first "concert pianist" as he performed widely on the piano. Composers Beethoven and Clementi from the classical era were also famed for their playing, as were, from the romantic era, Liszt, Brahms, Chopin, Mendelssohn and Rachmaninoff. From that era, leading performers less known as composers were Clara Schumann and Hans von Bûlow. However, as we do not have modern audio recordings of most of these pianists, we rely mainly on written commentary to give us an account of their technique and style.