Blog

47 winners in 40 years. How would you celebrate an anniversary?

American Pianists Association’s Grand Encounters 2019-2020 season does not start until November, but those in Indianapolis have many opportunities to hear great pianists perform before then.

Our 40th anniversary season: 9 artists · 4 concerts · flair to spare

When the clarinet glissando announced the beginning of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on February 12, 1924, little did the audience in Aeolian Hall realize they were witnessing a landmark in American cultural and music history.

Kenny Banks Jr. made us Get Happy at the first Premiere Series of the 2019 American Pianists Awards, and we have been smiling nonstop since September 2018, as Billy Test, Keelan Dimick, Dave Meder and Emmet Cohen came through town!

This month we Take Five with Emmet Cohen and hear his musical impressions of Miami and New York among other topics.

Bonus material for episode nine of “The Journey,” which dives into the dynamic between singers and pianists from the perspective of 2015 American Pianists Awards winner Sullivan Fortner.

This month we Take Five with Dave Meder and hear about his passions for Bach, "Heart and Soul" and CrossFit.

Time to reminisce about the highlights of 2018!

Keelan is coming!

This show is like a glass of champagne--uplifting, fun and bubbly! Two artistic leaders talk about our latest collaboration with Dance Kaleidoscope, featuring 2013 Awards finalist Eric Zuber on piano.

Ahead of his Premiere Series concert, 2019 American Pianists Awards finalist Billy Test joined us to Take Five. Enjoy his music and insights:

2019 American Pianists Awards finalist Kenny Banks Jr. was ready to Take Five with us recently in a back room at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola. Check out his verbal and musical responses to our queries.

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is a parlor game based on the concept of "six degrees of separation” that posits any two people on Earth can be linked via six or fewer acquaintances. We can play a similar game with American Pianists Awards finalist Emmet Cohen. 

From the Hamptons to the Prairie: Joel Harrison and Drew Petersen discuss performing Prokofiev with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra at Symphony on the Prairie.

“Everything must go!”

Dave Meder’s recent moving sale reflects his career as a pianist, composer and educator.

Oprah Winfrey called it “America’s most unusual town.” 2019 American Pianists Awards finalist Keelan Dimick calls it his hometown.

Billy Test’s piano repertoire ranges from Bach to the blues. He has taken inspiration from Brazilian musical culture and has jammed on the summer festival scene with rock legends.

From Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center in NYC: two sets by the five finalists for the 2019 American Pianists Awards.

2017 American Pianists Awards winner Drew Petersen performs on Christ Church Cathedral's new Steinway D piano for its dedicatory concert.

“Whaaaaaaa?!?!! I’m going to go out tonight!” Kenny Banks Jr., son of a church singer and a jazz pianist, learned he was a finalist for the 2019 American Pianists Awards on March 11, 2018. We talk with Kenny about gospel music, "Get Happy" and more

Petersen, winner of the 2017 American Pianists Awards, was honored as an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient in a ceremony at The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WQXR on March 22, 2018

As we celebrate this year the centennial of the birth of Leonard Bernstein, one of the true icons of the music world and one of the greatest American artists to have ever lived, I am thrilled to have numerous opportunities to share in that celebration of this great figure, and of American music in general.

2019 American Pianists Awards finalist Emmet Cohen gave a thrilling performance of the national anthem prior to the Indiana Pacers basketball game!

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve been selected to participate in Brackets For Good, a bracket-style fundraising tournament inspired by the March college basketball tournament!

On Wednesday December 13, 2017 Drew Petersen joins the long roster of American Pianists Awards winners to perform in the series. In this month's Beauty of Music, American Pianists Association Artistic Administrator Milner Fuller provides some insight into Drew's program.

The youngest finalist for the 2001 American Pianists Awards was unsettled. With the first ever Cole Porter Fellowship on the line, the stakes were raised for this fifth edition of what was then known as the American Jazz Piano Competition. Aaron Parks, a pianist from Seattle who was at the time studying at Manhattan School of Music, could not decide on his repertoire for the finals.

A short background on Maurice Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin

As part of the 2017-2018 Grand Encounters season, American Pianists Association presents a concert by two imaginative individuals.

"There’s something about cages that magnifies freedom...whether you’re inside one or outside, freedom can’t really be talked about without considering the cage, can it?" - 2007 American Pianists Awards winner Dan Tepfer