Full Biography
“Such a breadth and variety of difficult pieces made me wonder at first if this (Dedications box set) was a hoax. But, no, the DVD proves that Steven Spooner is the real deal, a pianist of apparently limitless raw technique that’s almost note perfect.” “He might be the best faculty pianist I’ve heard”
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE
“His performances evidence Richter’s peerless focus, Gilels’s gold-plated sound, Cliburn’s urbane aesthetics, and Horowitz’s outgoing personality and his occasional tendency to play to the gallery.” “The performances of Brahms’s Fantasies op. 116 and selections from Grieg’s Lyric Pieces are simply to die for.” “I have to say that not only is Spooner a phenomenal pianist, he is also a compelling entertainer in the best sense of the word. He draws the audience in not just with his spell-binding music-making but with his magnetic personality.”
FANFARE
“This is a huge, laudable project in which pianist Steven Spooner plays recitals of repertoire associated with pianistic deities. Arensky’s rarely heard Elegie is gloriously shaded while Spooner’s own input comes in the form of his Concert Etude for Vladimir Horowitz (on music by Queen).” “Special is the disc of Schubert/Liszt Lieder (tenderly done) and Liszt’s Legend No. 2, a performance of terrific power.” “This is a fascinating collection with an intriguing spread of repertoire.”
INTERNATIONAL PIANO
“Anything added to Steven Spooner’s dazzling, blurry-handed
sweeps of the entire piano would have been dizzying.”
THE WASHINGTON POST
At the very forefront of American pianists, critics and audiences have unanimously hailed the distinctive and compelling performances of pianist Steven Spooner. “A pianist in the tradition that many believe died with the likes of Horowitz, Arrau, Bolet, Cziffra, and Wild. His talent, to my ears, is easily the equal of most major pianists of today and far superior to a large number of those “most exciting and dynamic pianists of their generation” (Fanfare). “Such a breadth and variety of difficult pieces made me wonder at first if this recording was a hoax. But, no, Steven Spooner is the real deal, a pianist of apparently limitless raw technique that’s almost note perfect.” (American Record Guide).
Steven Spooner has been hailed as “the real deal, a pianist of apparently limitless raw technique that’s almost note perfect-He might be the best faculty pianist I’ve heard” (American Record Guide), with performances that evidence “Richter’s peerless focus, Gilels’s gold-plated sound, Cliburn’s urbane aesthetics, and Horowitz’s outgoing personality.” The Washington Post marveled at his “dazzling, blurry-handed sweeps of the entire piano.” In 2025, he was featured on Living the Creative Life, the most-watched classical music show, hosted by Zsolt Bognar, discussing his extraordinary life in music and monumental body of recordings.
Professor of Piano at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University and newly appointed to the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School, Spooner has trained winners of multiple prizes at major international competitions at every level. Previously teaching as a Visiting Professor at The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division, where he covered the studio of legendary pedagogue Yoheved Kaplinsky, he serves as Artistic Director of the Chicago International Competition and Festival and is increasingly in demand for his masterclasses at leading conservatories worldwide. He has served on the faculty of many of the most prestigious summer festivals and regularly sits on juries of international competitions.
A prizewinner at all seven international piano competitions he entered, Spooner took First Prize and the Niekamp Career Grant as most outstanding pianist in French music at the Paris Conservatory and top prizes at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. In 2008, he was awarded the Ivory Classics Foundation Prize that enabled him to study with the legendary virtuoso Earl Wild. At the International Liszt Competition, Russian piano legend and Moscow Conservatory Professor Victor Merzhanov praised his “deep understanding of the contents of Liszt’s works, organic and instinctive feeling of form and outstanding virtuosity,” noting that “his pianistic art must attract more attention from concert organizers around the world.”
Spooner has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, the Great Hall of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Salle Cortot in Paris, Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht, Shanghai Concert Hall, and the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore. His orchestral engagements include performances and recordings with the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Danubia Symphony Orchestra, Guangxi Symphony Orchestra, Brevard Symphony Orchestra, Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra, NAVO, and numerous other ensembles across Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the United States. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with distinguished artists including The Borromeo String Quartet, pianist Sergei Babayan, and Silk Road Ensemble bassist, Daxun Zhang. In recent seasons, he has daringly reinvented the solo recital by allowing audiences to vote on the spot for one of several prepared programs. He has undertaken a series of seventeen solo recitals comparable to Anton Rubinstein’s historic recitals of 1885, embracing much of the standard piano literature from Baroque to composers of the twenty-first century.
Spooner has released more than forty-five recordings on Naxos, Steinway Spirio, A Life of Music, EMR Classics, and other labels. Recognized as a leading authority on Liszt, his monumental ten-volume Aspects of Liszt explores every facet of that composer’s output, while his Dedications project comprises sixteen albums honoring his Russian pianistic heroes through performances of repertoire associated with legendary figures from Horowitz to Richter. His performances include his own compositions and virtuoso transcriptions, including his Concert Etude for Vladimir Horowitz (on music by Queen). Critics have praised his “gloriously shaded” interpretations and performances “of terrific power,” with his accounts of Brahms’s Fantasies Op. 116 and Grieg’s Lyric Pieces singled out as “simply to die for.”
Born in Louisiana, Steven Spooner began piano studies at age nine and made his public debut at fourteen. He studied at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire in the former Soviet Union, Moscow Conservatory, and Indiana University. His teachers and coaches have included Nodar Gabunia, Karen Shaw, Edmund Battersby, Leonard Hokanson, Tatiana Nikolayeva, and Earl Wild. Steven Spooner is a Steinway Artist.
