A pianist ( /ˈpiːənɨst/ PEE-ə-nist) is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.
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 jazz, classical music, and all sorts of popular music.
A performing classical pianist usually starts playing piano at a very young age.
A single listing of pianists in all genres would be impractical, given the multitude of musicians noted for their performances on the instrument. Below are links to lists of well-known or influential pianists divided by genres:
Many well-known classical composers were also virtuoso pianists. The following is an incomplete list of such musicians.
Martin Leung, also known as the Video Game Pianist or the Blindfolded Pianist, is one of the first pianists to gain worldwide recognition for playing popular video game music on the piano, both in concert venues and in online videos.
Unlike many recognized musicians, Leung's breakthrough occurred almost entirely online when, on 2 July 2004 , a video of him playing the Super Mario Bros theme blindfolded debuted on eBaum's World and later appeared on numerous viral video websites. Leung has been covered by Advanced Media Network, The Plain Dealer, Nintendo Power, GAME Magazine, CUBE Magazine, Night Life Montreal, MTV, 1UP.com, GameSpot, and Slashdot.
Born in Hong Kong to Chinese and Japanese parents, Leung moved to California when he was three years old and began taking interest in the piano at the age of 4 when, after hearing his sister play, he began imitating songs. His parents noticed his potential and enrolled him in piano lessons.
By the late 1990s, Leung had developed into a talented musician, placing first two times at the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, once in 1998 and once in 2000, and placing third at the 2002 Oberlin Piano Festival. Leung made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2003 at the age of 16 in the Isaac Stern Auditorium, performing Mendelssohn's Concerto No. 1 - Presto.
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Pianomania follows Stefan Knüpfer, a piano tuner from Steinway and his famous clients Lang Lang, Brendel, Buchbinder and Pierre-Laurent Aimard as they search for the perfect pitch. Truly an unusual and entertaining peak behind the curtain at the worlds great concert halls.
Keywords: arthouse, classical-music, music-recording, pianist, piano, steinway, vienna-austria
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DEBUSSY HAS LEFT THE BUILDING is about the timeless seductiveness of classical piano music. Internationally acclaimed concert pianist Victor Alexeeff leads the audience into their own "field of dreams" using the world renowned compositions 'Claire de Lune" by Claude Debussy and the prelude in G major by Sergej Rachmaninoff.
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When Miss Marple's visiting friend sees a woman being strangled on a passing train, they immediately report it to the police. Inspector Slack sees Miss Marple as a bit of a busy body and drops the investigation after only a few days. Miss Marple however determines that there is only one spot along the line where a body could have been dumped and it happens to be very near the Crackenthorpe estate. She asks a professional housekeeper, Lucy Eyelesbarrow, to go there undercover as a domestic. She soon finds the dead woman's body at which time the police take on a renewed interest but it is left to Miss Marple to solve the mystery.
Keywords: based-on-novel, class-status, cook, detective, estate, golf, inheritance, manor-house, miss-marple, murder
Miss Jane Marple: But of course you must go on searching, Inspector! Now you might say that Elspeth is not a sophisticated person, but, I assure you, she has both feet firmly on the ground. She saw what she saw!
Plot
Released from jail, John Wesley Hardin leaves an account of his life with the local newspaper. It tells of his overly religious father, his resulting life of cards and guns, and his love for his step-sister replaced on her death during a gun fight with that for dance-hall girl Rosie.
Keywords: 1860s, 1870s, 1890s, 19th-century, alabama, alias, army, assumed-identity, aunt-nephew-relationship, austin-texas
He cut a swath of daring across the great southwest!
Capt. W.H. McNally: John Wesley Hardin has made the name of Texas stick in the nostrils of justice.
John Clements: What are you doing on the trail? Trying to pick up a little stray business?::Chick Noonan: I pick up business any place I can find it. Business was good in Abilene. I had a special embalming and burying job on the Durango Kid. And if I do say so myself, when he was laid out, his own wife didn't even know him. She thought he was a stranger asleep in the parlor.
John Wesley Hardin: My father, J. G. Hardin, was a preacher and circuit rider. He was a strong, God-fearing man who carried his Bible like a six-gun and fought with the Devil wherever he found him.
John Wesley Hardin: I don't back up from any man unless he was my pa.
John Wesley Hardin: There's no more law in Texas... only Yankee law.
John Wesley Hardin: Get out of here, Rosie! There's gonna be some shootin'!
John Wesley Hardin: I'm getting out of here, clear out of Texas, Jane, and we'll get that farm, Jane, just like I promised you: the well...::Jane Brown: Sure, I know. The place with the white painted fence, the green grass, and the water all year round. I don't believe that any more, Wes. I don't think you believe it! No, you'll never have that place, not now. You'll never have more than six feet of ground.