Bio | REVIEWS | Photos

In pursuit of his mission to make classical music a relevant and powerful force in society, Greg Anderson has developed a multi-faceted career as a pianist, composer, and filmmaker. Today Greg is an internationally renowned concert pianist with live tours reaching four continents and 24 countries, 30+ million music video views, daily radio plays, and over a thousand performances of his compositions every year. His intuitively creative approach and ability to connect with the next generation have attracted the attention of such media outlets as PBS, MTV, the BBC, and the Today Show. He is profiled in Nick Romeo’s Driven, David Cutler’s The Savvy Musician, and Adrian Daub’s Four-Handed Monsters, and he has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today, All Things Considered, and A Prairie Home Companion, as well as Pianist, Gramophone, and Listen magazines.

20 years of music-making and friendship

For over two decades, Greg has performed in collaboration with Elizabeth Joy Roe as the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo, noted as “the most dynamic duo of this generation” (San Francisco Classical Voice) and “the very model of complete 21st-century musicians” (The Washington Post). Their five critically acclaimed albums on the Universal and Steinway record labels have spent over a dozen weeks at the top of the Billboard Classical Charts and have been heard in movie soundtracks and Olympic figure staking. They are recipients of a 2017 Club Cumming “YAAAAAAAS” award and the Classical Post’s 2019 “Most Innovative Instrumentalist” in piano.

International touring artist

Greg has toured extensively while performing as a soloist, duo pianist, and chamber musician, with notable recitals in the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Estonia, Romania, Israel, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, and most major US cities, as well as in nearly every New York City venue imaginable, from Carnegie Hall to children’s hospitals. He has performed in many of the world’s most significant concert halls, from D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Munich’s Hercules Hall to the Seoul Arts Center and Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts. Greg has appeared at the Gilmore and Gina Bachauer International Piano Festivals, Cliburn Concerts, and dozens of summer music festivals, including the Great Mountains, Santa Fe, Grand Teton, Aspen, Mostly Mozart, and Styriarte festivals. He has soloed with the orchestras of San Francisco, Vancouver, Calgary, Boulder, Winnipeg, St. Paul, Chicago, Rochester, Hartford, Liverpool, and more.

Music videos and social media

In alignment with his mission, Greg is a passionate advocate for community engagement. He has interacted with more than 100,000 students in person, utilizing his knack for decoding music at outreach events and master classes. His mission flourishes online where his reach is even more vast. He personally engages with 75,000 social media followers, and he has produced, directed, and edited 70+ music videos (featuring himself, Anderson & Roe, and others) with the aim to excite and energize young musicians. With an Emmy nomination, premieres at international film festivals, and millions of views on YouTube, his videos have been influential in shaping the next generation of artists. School teachers share the films in classrooms again and again, and beginner pianists regularly cite the music videos as inspiration for learning to play. Rather stunningly, the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corp turned Greg’s first-ever music video, “The Devil’s Staircase,” into their 2011 competition program for the Drum Corps World Championships, while his films with Liz were a source of inspiration for the lauded Korean soap opera Secret Affair. In 2018, Greg & Liz held a composition competition to highlight the work of young composers; they performed excerpts from the 46 submissions on social media and they’re currently producing a music video featuring the winning composition. His engagement continued during COVID isolation; in addition to presenting interactive virtual performances, Greg & Liz hosted a year of “Two Piano Tuesday” livestream conversations, discussing challenges and solutions in the field of classical music with an enthusiastic and devoted global audience each week. In yet another endeavor to demystify classical music, Greg operates a “Musical Mixology” blog featuring cocktails he’s crafted to complement the music of classical composers.

The Cliburn, From the Top, and more

Greg is recognized as a world leader on the advancement of classical music and attracting new audiences. For two iterations of the Cliburn International Piano Competition and one iteration of the Junior Competition, Greg has served as host and correspondent for the must-watch webcasts, interviewing competitors and providing commentary and insight for millions of viewers worldwide. The finals of the 2017 competition aired live in movie theaters throughout the US, and the 2022 competition is chronicled in the upcoming documentary “Crescendo” which includes interviews with Greg. Similarly, Greg has shared his advocacy for classical music while guest hosting NPR’s From the Top, a radio show and non-profit organization devoted to developing the stories, talents, and character of young classically trained musicians. He has been invited to present as the keynote artist at dozens of music teacher conventions, including the 2013 MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) national convention, and international leader symposiums such as EG (Entertainment Gathering), the Imagine Solutions Conference, Chicago Ideas Week, and Mexico’s Ciudad de las Ideas.

Composer and arranger

Greg’s compositions and arrangements offer an additional outlet for his mission. His 100+ works are featured on the Universal, Sony, EMI, and Steinway record labels and are frequently performed by concert pianists, major orchestras, and amateurs alike. His scores reinvent popular classics, explore new pianistic techniques, and engender joyfulness and togetherness in music-making. Piano teachers regularly assign his music to students, and thousands of pianists have uploaded their performances to YouTube. As the Northwest Reverb argued, his music makes “a strong case that playing piano is the most fun thing that two people could ever do together.” Greg’s works are published by Alfred Music on the “Anderson & Roe Duos & Duets Series” and his own publishing company, Awkward Fermata Press.

Juilliard and Yale

Greg received his Doctorate and Master of Musical Arts degrees from Yale University and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where one of his performances was handpicked to appear on the Sounds of Juilliard CD celebrating the school’s centenary. Greg is a Steinway artist.