Pianist Michelle Cann made her orchestral debut at age 14 and has since performed with such ensembles as the Florida Orchestra; the New Jersey, Memphis, Knoxville, and Cleveland Institute of Music symphonies; and the Pennsylvania Philharmonic. She has also played with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Barbican Centre in London. She made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut performing the Price Piano Concerto on a Digital Stage concert this past February. She regularly appears in recital and as a chamber musician throughout the United States, China, and South Korea. In 2016 Ms. Cann gave the New York premiere of Price’s Piano Concerto with the Dream Unfinished, an organization whose purpose is to bring to the forefront those female and minority composers too long lingering in the background of American music. Recently she performed a chamber recital with members of the Cincinnati Symphony as its MAC Music Innovator.
Hailing from a musical family in Avon Park, Florida, Ms. Cann began piano lessons at age seven, soon adding organ, steel drums, trombone, tuba, and violin. Her primary focus on the piano earned her top prizes in numerous competitions, including the International Russian Music Piano Competition, the Blount-Slawson Young Artists Competition, and, most recently, the Wideman International Piano Competition. She received her bachelor and master degrees in piano performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music and an artist diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Currently, she holds the inaugural Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in piano studies at Curtis.
Ms. Cann is a leader in creating opportunities for music education in her community. During her time in Philadelphia, she has served as the choir director of two 30-member children’s choruses in the El-Sistema-inspired program Play On Philly. She served as one of three inaugural fellows of the Curtis Institute’s ArtistYear. Through that one-year fellowship, she worked with local community partners, such as City Year, Teach for America, and AmeriCorps, to bring the arts to local Philadelphia communities where arts education and access are unattainable.
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