PianoPedia

Dr. John-Malcolm John Rebennack

Malcolm John Rebennack (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music combined blues, pop, jazz, boogie woogie and rock and roll. Active as a session musician from the late 1950s until his death, he gained a following in the late…

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Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff (1 April 1873 – 28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist and conductor of the late Romantic period, some of whose works are among the most popular in the Romantic repertoire. Born into a musical family, Rachmaninoff took up the piano at age four. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory…

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Hans von Bülow

Hans Guido Freiherr von Bülow (January 8, 1830 – February 12, 1894) was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. One of the most famous conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, especially Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms.…

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Clara Schumann

Clara Schumann ( Clara Josephine Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished composers and pianists of the Romantic era. She exerted her influence over a 61-year concert career, changing the format and repertoire of the piano recital, while also having composed a…

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Niccolò Paganini

Niccolò (or Nicolò) Paganini (Italian: 27 October 1782 – 27 May 1840) was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His 24 Caprices for Solo Violin Op. 1 are among the best…

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Jean-Henri Pape

Jean-Henri Pape, born as Johann Heinrich Pape and also known as Henry Pape (1 July 1789 – 2 February 1875), was a distinguished French maker of pianos and harps in the early 19th century. Pape was born in Sarstedt, Germany, in 1789. He arrived in Paris in 1811 and secured employment with Pleyel, whose piano…

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Gaveau

Gaveau of Paris was a French piano manufacturer. The company was established by Joseph Gabriel Gaveau in 1847 in Paris and used to be one of the three largest piano makers in France (after Érard and Pleyel). A large factory was located at Fontenay-sous-Bois. Some Gaveau pianos were constructed with art cabinets. Many pianos have…

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Sébastien Érard

Sébastien Érard (born Sebastian Erhard, 5 April 1752 – 5 August 1831) was a French instrument maker of German origin who specialised in the production of pianos and harps, developing the capacities of both instruments and pioneering the modern piano. Érard was born at Strasbourg. While a boy he showed great aptitude for practical geometry…

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Ignaz Pleyel

Ignace Joseph Pleyel (18 June 1757 – 14 November 1831) was an Austrian-born French composer and piano builder of the Classical period. Early years He was born in Ruppersthal in Lower Austria, the son of a schoolmaster named Martin Pleyel. He was the 24th of 38 children in the family. While still young, he probably…

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John Broadwood & Sons

John Broadwood & Sons is an English piano manufacturer, founded in 1728 by Burkat Shudi and continued after his death in 1773 by John Broadwood. Early history John Broadwood, a Scottish joiner and cabinetmaker, came to London in 1761 and began to work for the Swiss harpsichord manufacturer Burkat Shudi. He married Shudi’s daughter eight…

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Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer and actor. Hancock started his career with Donald Byrd. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet where he helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the post-bop sound. In…

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Willie „The Lion“ Smith

William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholf Smith (November 23, 1893 – April 18, 1973), also known as „The Lion“, was an American jazz pianist and one of the masters of the stride style, usually grouped with James P. Johnson and Thomas „Fats“ Waller as the three greatest practitioners of the genre in its golden age, from…

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Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian opera composer. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, and developed a musical education with the help of a local patron. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Vincenzo…

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Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( 22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his later works were later known, „music dramas“). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his…

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Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert ( 31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of…

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Amy Beach

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (September 5, 1867 – December 27, 1944) was an American composer and pianist. She was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. Her „Gaelic“ Symphony, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896, was the first symphony composed and published by an American woman. She was one of…

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Jörg Demus

Jörg Demus (2 December 1928 – 16 April 2019) was an Austrian pianist. Jörg Demus was a highly regarded pianist and one of the finest of accompanists. He was noted for combining a basically Romantic sound and in line with an interest in historic keyboard interpretation and early model pianos. At the age of six,…

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Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn’s compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music and chamber music. His best-known works include his Overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s…

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , was a Russian composer of the romantic period, whose works are among the most popular music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States. He was honored in…

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Claude Debussy

Achille-Claude Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born to a family of modest means and little cultural involvement, Debussy…

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