Pianist

Contemporary classical pianists focus on dedicating their careers to performing, recording, teaching, researching, and continually adding new compositions to their repertoire.

Well known jazz pianists include Bill Evans, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and Brad Mehldau.

As a result, there are prominent communities of amateur pianists all over the world that play at quite a high level and give concerts not to earn money but just for the love of music.

[3] The International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, held annually in Paris, attracts about one thousand listeners each year and is broadcast on French radio.

Jon Nakamatsu, the Gold Medal winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for professional pianists in Fort Worth, Texas (1997) was at the moment of his victory technically an amateur: he never attended a music conservatory or majored in music, and worked as a high school German teacher at the time; it was only after the competition that he started pursuing a career as a classical pianist.

Sergei Rachmaninoff at the piano
Motion capture of two pianists' fingers playing the same piece (slow motion, no sound). [ 1 ]
' Humoresque ' by Sergei Rachmaninoff
Gaspard de la nuit by Maurice Ravel is considered a highly technically challenging piano piece . [ 2 ]
A black-and-white photo of a man playing a piano; he is hunched over it and is concentrating deeply.
Tord Gustavsen playing piano during a concert at the 2016 Oslo Jazz Festival in Norway
An amateur pianist playing outdoors at Pike Place market in Seattle .