He grew up in the Essex House hotel, where neighbors included Rudolf Bing, Lily Pons, Lauritz Melchior and Clifford Curzon.

At age eleven, he was accepted by Eduard Steuermann,[1] who had studied and become friends with Arnold Schoenberg and Ferruccio Busoni.

He remained for more than half a century; among his students were Leslie Amper, Marc-André Hamelin, Randall Hodgkinson, Christopher O'Riley and HaeSun Paik, who is now co-chair of piano at the school.

[1] He also taught Kathy Chi, Soojin Ahn, Ning An, Hung-Kuan Chen, Rina Dokshitsky, Hugh Hinton, Livan, Heng-Jin Park, Sergey Schepkin, Minsoo Sohn, Kathleen Supové, Christopher Taylor, and Craig Smith, Tian Ying, and Zenan Yu.

Among the observations in Piano Pieces is Sherman's comment, "Music dispels the fear of mortality and the need for rigid and permanent identities.

[2] He recorded an album entitled Russell Sherman: Premieres and Commissions, music composed for him in the 1990s, by Schuller, Robert Helps, George Perle, and Ralph Shapey.

He also recorded Bach's English Suites, all Mozart's piano sonatas, Chopin's mazurkas, and music by Claude Debussy and Arnold Schoenberg.