Michael Shinn

Biography

Pianist Michael Shinn's diverse career in music reflects his passion for both performance and education. He was recently named Director of Keyboard Curriculum at Juilliard, where he teaches private piano, chamber music, keyboard studies for both pianists and conductors, and courses in analysis for performers. Michael has designed innovative lectures and courses on a variety of subjects, focusing largely on his specialty, the music of Franz Liszt. In 2011, he was the Artistic Director of the Liszt Festival at Juilliard, a series of lecture-recitals celebrating the composer's bicentennial.

As a pianist, Michael is in demand as recitalist and chamber musician across the country and abroad. His recent and upcoming performances include concerts at Juilliard; Yamaha Artist Salon in New York City; the Centre for Performing Arts in Newnan, Georgia; Brock Hall in Birmingham, Alabama; and the vineyards of Sonoma and Napa Counties in California.

As part of the pianoSonoma Duo, Michael performs regularly with his wife, Jessica Chow Shinn, throughout the United States. He is co-founder and Artistic Director of the pianoSonoma Music Festival, a festival-workshop that brings together musicians from all walks of life to collaborate and perform in the vineyards of California. Passionate advocates of new music, the pianoSonoma Duo recently gave the world premieres of Sonata for Two Pianos by Michael White and Tiny Bits of Outrageous Love by Thomas Cabaniss.

Michael received his Bachelor and Master of Music from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Herbert Stessin and Jerome Lowenthal, and his Doctor of Musical Arts at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is also an Ironman triathlete and marathon runner.