John Kirkpatrick (18 March 1905 – 8 November 1991) was an American classical pianist and music scholar, best known for championing the works of Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Carl Ruggles, and Roy Harris.

[8] Throughout the 1930s, and in addition to his performances at Yaddo, Kirkpatrick gave many recitals and lecture-recitals of 20th-century American composers' works, many of them world premieres.

The most significant of these was on 20 January 1939, when he gave the first complete public performance of Charles Ives's Concord Sonata at Town Hall in New York City, playing the notoriously difficult and idiosyncratic piece entirely from memory.

[9] Before the New York premiere, Kirkpatrick had tried out a complete performance at a semi-private lecture-recital in Cos Cob, Connecticut (also playing from memory).

[10]When Kirkpatrick gave a further performance of the sonata at the Town Hall the following month, it was reviewed by multiple mainstream publications, including Time, The New York Sun, and The New Yorker.

[12] In January 1940 Kirkpatrick met his future wife, the soprano Hope Miller, when he was engaged to replace her accompanist for a recital tour.

During his time there, he also continued his musical career, conducting the Sage Chapel Choir, (which he led from 1953 to 1957), in a performance of Arthur Honegger's Le roi David in a translation and arrangement by Kirkpatrick, giving recitals, and making several recordings of works by Charles Ives and other 20th-century American composers, including the premiere recordings of Ives's Concord Sonata and Carl Ruggles's Evocations.