Vladimir Horowitz is and will forever remain at the top of my list of favorite performers. Horowitz was, from the very beginning, an extremely successful pianist in his native country the former Russian Empire (or areas around Ukraine in modern days) and later in the West. His style remains to be easily recognized in subtle yet demanding ways best described ,in my opinion, as a cross between a strictly trained piano student and the crazy Glenn Gould. Despite his years of struggle with depression and his own sexuality and periods of downfalls in his playing, he is highly repected and admired by many young artists in his years, many who eventually became pianists of very high profiles themselves in modern times. My most memorable piece of information about Horowitz was the fact that Sergei Rachmaninoff stated that Horowitz plays his concertos better than Rachmaninoff himself and is possibly the only rendition that is close to perfection.

I'm not sure if there any explanations are needed for my choice of Arthur Rubinstein, perhaps the face of all piano players, and no doubt one of the greatest pianists of all time. To me, Rubinstein is an extremely formal player and one of the best when it comes to playing everything on the score plus more. While I could link to a video of Rubinstein's insane techniques, I feel that his watlz defines him just as much as his concertos. Arthur Rubinstein, remains to this day, as one of the most elegant pianists ever lived and performed for others in my humble opinion.

Evgeny Kissin is able to create music so wonderful, that it draws everyone's attention away from his hair. For that he deserves two videos. Enough said.

Just like most students, I secretly believe that having excellent techniques is perphaps the single most important factor in creating music despite how much emphasis our professors put on emotions and feelings. The famous Yundi Li is admired by music lovers, myself included, for this exact reason. Being the youngest winner of the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition is an honor beyond the dreams of most sane musicians. Not only did Yundi achieve this milestone, he did it with grace. After anouncing his retirement from competitions, he continues to explore music, and this time around beyond perfect techniques, playing funky Liszt and exotic Brahms.

Nothing will survive without a flood of young blood and music is definitely not an exception. Impossible to miss is the very young and nonetheless extremely talented Nobuyuki Tsujii. Blind at birth, and lucky to be born into a family that supported his musical studies, Tsujii, affectionally known by his fans as Nobu, gave several hauntingly beautiful recitals at the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. It would be nothing short of ignorance to overlook an extrodinary talent such as Nobu.

-Favorite Composers-

Pianists may not all love the same composers, but all pinaists love Frederic Chopin. It's not hard to figure out why pianists harbor special feelings for him. Not only did this man composed almost exclusively for the piano, he also composed some of the most incredible pieces, in many different styles. I adore Chopin and love the feeling of playing such special music.

Mr. Johann Sebastian Bach defines Baroque music. When I hear silly comments such as "Baroque music is not only about Bach", I like to kindly remind the person that Baroque music may not be solely about Bach, but it is mostly about Bach. End of discussion. The true question is which piece I should use to represent Bach, there is no fair way to do this. Let's also make it Glenn Gould as this is probably the only thing he's good for.

I love Franz Liszt, he is just too cute. Aiming to be what Paganini is for the violin on the piano, I believe that he has more than achieved that goal. For me, Liszt became a bridge that stretched out towards first the violin, and later, many other instruments. The piano may be elegant, but the violin is much more dramatic and tear jerking, and they are only two of the many instruments that bring joy to this world.

If you need a piece where you can miss notes without others realizing it, Aram Khachaturian is your man. Khachaturian is also the poster child of talent. Though his musical training did not come till later in his life, Khachaturian showed pure and solid talent, that comes from within and not from the number of years of training. Though misunderstood as politically, Khachaturian's best music came from his joy of the new communist party in Armenian.

I pride in my lastest finding of Nikolai Kapustin. The only reason for his underappreciation is because he is too humble. I have yet read a negative critic of his compositions, and full heartly agree that he may just be the next Chopin, the jazzy Chopin of the modern era. Kapustin showed other composers that "modern music" is not about writing as many tritones in one piece as possible, and not the style, but simply the music itself.