Contemporary Pianists and Jazz Piano — Kissin, Lang Lang, Tsujii, Fujita, Evans, Keith Jarrett

The Piano Music of the 21st Century — Three Currents

After the great-generation pianists of the previous article on the 20th century, the piano music of the 21st century falls into three currents:

• The classical contemporary generation — young players who continue “pure classical” from the 20th century
• Jazz piano — the parallel lineage of “the summit of American music” developed in the 20th century
• Crossover — the fusion of jazz, classical, and world music

Of these, jazz piano is an independent art existing in parallel with the classical lineage. This final article of the series brings the two together.

The Classical Contemporary Generation — 21st-Century Virtuosi

Evgeny Kissin (1971–)

Born in Soviet Moscow, the representative “prodigy” of the age:

• 1984, at 12 — In Moscow he played both Chopin piano concertos in one evening, a worldwide sensation
• 1985, at 14 — On All-Union Radio, Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1: “the last prodigy of the 20th century”
• 1990 — US debut (Carnegie Hall)
• The 2020s — a great Romantic pianist of world stature

Technical perfection and deep musicality; the direct heir of the Horowitz–Richter tradition of the previous article. Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven are his main repertoire.

Lang Lang (郎朗, 1982–)

Born in Shenyang, China. A global superstar, a symbol of the Chinese piano boom:

• 1997, at 15 — Enters the Curtis Institute (Philadelphia)
• 1999, at 17 — A last-minute substitute for Isaac Stern at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago made him a world-famous star overnight
• World tours, huge output of recordings, merchandise, education
• A driver of China’s piano boom — China now has tens of millions of piano learners

“The entertainer of the classical world” — polarising, but one of the most-recognised pianists of the day.

Yuja Wang (王羽佳, 1987–)

Born in Beijing. Five years younger than Lang Lang; also a Curtis graduate.

• Technical perfection, blisteringly fast tempi
• Notable for her short-dress concert wear
• Great performances of Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin
• Extensive tours, world fame

Tsujii Nobuyuki (辻井伸行, 1988–)

Born in Tokyo, blind from birth. A musical hero of 21st-century Japan:

• 13 September 1988 — Born; congenitally blind
• 7 — Wins the junior division of the Jacksonville Piano Competition (in the general division, not a blind-only category)
• 2009 — Wins the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at 20, the first Asian and first blind winner
• Today — Performs worldwide, a genius of “touch and memory”

He cannot read music (does not even use Braille scores) and plays from memory, having listened to recordings. He corresponds to Euler (blind in both eyes) of the [Lineage of Mathematics] series — a talent beyond disability.

Sorita Kyōhei (反田恭平, 1994–)

Born in Sapporo. Second at the 2021 Chopin International Competition, the first Japanese man in half a century. Beyond performing, he runs a music office (Japan National Orchestra) — a contemporary musician-entrepreneur.

Fujita Mao (藤田真央, 1998–)

Born in Tokyo. Second at the 2019 Tchaikovsky International Competition, then a worldwide career:

• Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Messiaen — a wide repertoire
• 2022 — complete Mozart Piano Sonatas on CD for Deutsche Grammophon
• A soft touch, a crystalline musicality
• The summit of contemporary Japanese pianism

The previous article on Rachmaninoff and Scriabin also mentioned Fujita’s Scriabin. He is the musical hope of 21st-century Japan.

Kamei Masaya (亀井聖矢, 2001–)

Born in Aichi. Won the 2022 Long-Thibaud International Competition. A world reputation in his teens; one of a group of young Japanese pianists of the 21st century.

Other Contemporary Rising Stars

• Daniil Trifonov (1991–) — Russia; Tchaikovsky Competition winner, 2011
• Seong-Jin Cho (조성진, 1994–) — Korea; Chopin Competition winner, 2015
• Jan Lisiecki (1995–) — Canada; early-blooming talent
• Alexandre Kantorow (1997–) — France; Tchaikovsky Competition winner, 2019
• Bruce Xiaoyu Liu (劉曉禹, 1997–) — Canada, Chinese origin; Chopin Competition winner, 2021

Japanese Piano Culture — The World’s Great “Nation of Amateurs”

Japan is said to be the world’s greatest nation of piano amateurs:

• Yamaha and Kawai — world piano makers (see the earlier article [The Evolution of Keyboard Instruments])
• Number of piano learners — one of the largest in the world
• Love of Chopin — Japan’s audience for the Chopin Competition dwarfs any other
• Japanese festivals — La Folle Journée, Beppu Argerich, Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto, Hamamatsu International Piano Competition

“Japan’s love of the piano” is a contemporary world phenomenon.

The Lineage of Jazz Piano — A Parallel 20th-Century History

Jazz piano developed in the 20th century along a separate lineage from classical. Its main evolution:

1900s–1920s — Ragtime

• Scott Joplin (1868–1917) — Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer
• A regular “stride” left hand and syncopated right hand

1920s–1940s — Stride, Swing

• Art Tatum (1909–1956) — “the god of jazz piano,” overwhelming technique
• Count Basie (1904–1984) — swing
• Earl Hines (1903–1983) — “trumpet style”

1940s–1960s — Bebop, Hard Bop

• Thelonious Monk (1917–1982) — distinctive dissonance, “the crazy genius of jazz.” Round Midnight, Well, You Needn’t
• Bud Powell (1924–1966) — central figure of bebop
• Oscar Peterson (1925–2007) — Canada; a virtuoso

1950s–1970s — Modal, Post-Bop

• Bill Evans (1929–1980) — “the Chopin of jazz piano,” poetic
• McCoy Tyner (1938–2020) — partner to John Coltrane
• Herbie Hancock (1940–) — Miles Davis’s partner, electric jazz

1970s–1990s — Fusion, Solo

• Keith Jarrett (1945–) — deified with The Köln Concert (1975)
• Chick Corea (1941–2021) — fusion, Return to Forever
• Ahmad Jamal (1930–2023)

The Present (2000–)

• Uehara Hiromi (1979–) — Japan, a global jazz-piano star
• Brad Mehldau (1970–) — US, Bach-jazz fusion
• Jacob Collier (1994–) — UK, multi-instrumentalist and music-theory genius
• Uehara Hiromi — Japan, invited to the world’s greatest jazz festivals

Bill Evans — “The Poet of Jazz Piano”

Bill Evans (William John Evans, 1929–1980) was born in New Jersey. A central figure of jazz piano history; died at 51 of complications from drug addiction.

Life

• 16 August 1929 — Born
• 1956 — Debut in the US
• 1958–1959 — Briefly joins the Miles Davis Sextet; plays on Kind of Blue (1959), one of the most important albums in the history of jazz
• 1959–1961 — The Bill Evans Trio (with Scott LaFaro on bass, Paul Motian on drums), the most famous trio in the history of jazz
• June 1961 — Live recordings Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard, ten days after which LaFaro died in a car accident at 25
• 1961–1980 — Various trios; drug addiction worsened
• 15 September 1980 — Died in New York of drug complications at 51

Musical Contribution

• Modal jazz — with Miles, improvising over modes rather than chord changes
• “The democratization of the trio” — pianist, bassist, and drummer as equal conversational partners
• Brought the ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords of French Impressionism (see the earlier article on Debussy and Ravel) into jazz
• A soft touch, a poetic expression

Scott LaFaro (1936–1961)

Bassist. His poetic dialogue with Evans changed the history of jazz. Died in a car accident at 25, on 6 July 1961. Evans was deeply bereaved and stopped playing for months.

Thelonious Monk — “The Crazy Genius of Jazz”

Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917–1982) was born in North Carolina, USA. The most singular composer-pianist in the history of jazz:

Characteristics

• Dissonance, deliberate “wrong notes”
• Distinctive rhythm, sudden stops
• Danced while playing (sometimes stood up)
• Composed a vast number of jazz standards

Major Works

• ’Round Midnight — the most-performed jazz standard in the world
• Well, You Needn’t
• Straight, No Chaser
• Epistrophy

Standard repertoire for contemporary jazz pianists.

Keith Jarrett — “Master of Improvisation”

Keith Jarrett (1945–) was born in Pennsylvania, USA. World-famous on both the jazz and the classical side:

• 1960s — the Miles Davis band
• 1970s — Charles Lloyd, Stan Getz
• From 1970 — the “American Quartet,” the “European Quartet”
• From the 1980s — the “Standards Trio” (with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette), lasting 22 years

The Köln Concert (24 January 1975)

A completely improvised solo piano concert at the Cologne Opera House. An hour of improvisation, a worldwide bestseller. A symbol of the deification of jazz piano.

Bach Performances

From the 1980s, Jarrett has recorded a large amount of classical music — Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Goldberg Variations, and French Suites. “A bridge between jazz and classical.”

• The 1990s — several years off with chronic fatigue syndrome
• 2018 — Stroke, hemiplegic, retired

Approaching 80, one of the greatest living jazz masters.

Chick Corea (1941–2021)

Born in Massachusetts. A representative of fusion jazz:

• 1968 — Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew
• The 1970s — Return to Forever, fusion
• Spain — a jazz standard
• Many Grammy Awards (25)

Died of cancer on 9 February 2021 at 79.

Uehara Hiromi (上原ひろみ, 1979–)

Born in Shizuoka, Japan. A 21st-century Japanese jazz-piano star:

• Graduated from the Berklee College of Music (Boston)
• Debuted internationally after being noticed by Chick Corea
• Another Mind (2003) — her debut album, a worldwide hit
• Virtuosic, fiery — classical rigor plus jazz freedom
• A contemporary representative of crossover music

Jacob Collier — “Musical Omnipotence”

Jacob Collier (1994–) was born in London, England. The musical genius of the 21st century:

• YouTube-native — filming himself at home, world-famous
• Multi-instrumentalist — piano, voice, bass, drums, strings
• Extremely complex harmony and rhythm — microtones, changing metres
• Five Grammy Awards (before 30)
• Quincy Jones called him “the most talented musician I have ever seen”

“The fusion of music theory, jazz, classical, and pop” — his hallmark of our age.

Jazz and Classical — A Contrast

	Classical	Jazz
Notation	Precise score	Chord progressions + improvisation
Performance	“Faithful to the composer”	“Improvisation is the star”
Rhythm	Metre and tempo as notated	Swing, rhythmic freedom
Harmony	Functional harmony	Extended chords, tensions
Focus	Composer	Performer
Form	Sonata, variation, etc.	Head + solo + head

The 20th-century opposition of “composer-centred vs. performer-centred.” But in the 21st century the boundary has dissolved: a classical pianist plays jazz, a jazz pianist plays Bach — routinely.

Crossover — A Current of the 21st Century

• Bach and jazz — Keith Jarrett, Glenn Gould (pure Bach), Jacques Loussier (Bach-jazz arrangements)
• Minimalism and piano — Max Richter, Ludovico Einaudi, Nils Frahm
• World music — Danilo Pérez (Panama), Tigran Hamasyan (Armenia)
• Game music, anime, film — Hisaishi Joe, Sakamoto Ryūichi, Uematsu Nobuo, Sawano Hiroyuki, Hans Zimmer

Between “pure classical” and “pure jazz” lies a vast middle ground — the main battlefield of the 21st century.

Pianists in the Age of YouTube and Social Media

Since the launch of YouTube in 2005, the global reach of pianists has been revolutionized:

• Tsujii Nobuyuki, Fujita Mao, Sorita Kyōhei — reached the world through the YouTube broadcasts of the Van Cliburn, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky competitions
• Lisa Popeil, Jay Park, Valentina Lisitsa — world careers from YouTube
• Tens of millions of views in a day — the diffusion speed of a great performance
• Education — masterclass videos by Lang Lang and Fujita Mao

“Discovered by the world through YouTube” — a new model of the 21st-century pianist. Compare the “LP and CD age” of the previous article on the 20th century.

AI and the Piano — A Late-21st-Century Question

Corresponding to Tao (AI and mathematics) in the [Lineage of Mathematics] series:

• AI composition — GPT-based composition; Suno, Udio (2024–)
• AI performance — the Yamaha Disklavier reproducing great performances
• AI generating new pieces “in the style of Bach” or “in the style of Chopin”
• Live performances with human pianists

“Human emotional expression vs. the AI’s perfect mimicry” — the theme of the 21st century. The future of music.

Contemporary Piano Competitions

The main international competitions:

• Chopin International (Warsaw, from 1927, every 5 years)
• Tchaikovsky International (Moscow, from 1958, every 4 years)
• Van Cliburn International (Fort Worth, Texas, from 1962, every 4 years)
• Queen Elisabeth (Brussels, from 1937)
• Long-Thibaud (Paris, from 1943)
• Busoni (Bolzano, from 1949)
• Leeds International (UK, from 1961)
• Hamamatsu International (Japan, from 1991)
• Sendai International (Japan, from 2001)

Winners of each competition go on as great pianists of the world. The “competition system” is the foundation of the pianist’s profession in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Summing Up 300 Years — The End of the Piano Series

The eleven articles of the piano series trace the 300-year lineage from Cristofori in 1700 to Fujita Mao and Kamei Masaya of the 2020s:

• 1700–1770 — [01 The Evolution of Keyboard Instruments] — Cristofori’s invention, Silbermann’s refinement
• 1685–1750 — [02 Bach and Keyboard Music] — the summit of the harpsichord, encounter with the piano
• 1750–1810 — [03 Mozart and Haydn] — the golden age of classical piano
• 1770–1827 — [04 Beethoven] — the 32 sonatas, beyond the instrument’s limits
• 1810–1849 — [05 Chopin] — the poet of the piano, the salons of Paris
• 1811–1886 — [06 Liszt] — the magician of the piano, the invention of the recital
• 1810–1897 — [07 Schumann and Brahms] — the introspection of German Romanticism
• 1862–1937 — [08 Debussy and Ravel] — the colour of French Impressionism
• 1872–1943 — [09 Rachmaninoff and Scriabin] — the final form of Russian Romanticism
• 1903–1997 — [10 The Great Pianists of the 20th Century] — the giants of the recording age
• 1929–2025 — [11 The Contemporary and Jazz Piano] — 21st-century pianism

The Trinity of Instrument, Composer, and Performer

The three-way relation of instrument, composer, and performer that we presented in the overview has been continuously updated across 300 years:

• The evolution of the instrument made new composition possible
• New composition prompted the performer’s next challenge
• The performer’s challenge demanded the instrument’s improvement

The modern piano (Steinway, Bösendorfer, Yamaha, Kawai, Fazioli) is a crystallization of the accumulated demands and challenges of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and Horowitz, Gould, Argerich, Fujita Mao.

What Has Changed in 300 Years

• The instrument — from 5 octaves to 88 keys, from a wooden frame to cast iron
• The number of works — from hundreds to hundreds of thousands
• The place of performance — from the salon to the concert hall to YouTube
• The audience — from aristocracy to public to the world
• Education — from private to conservatory to online
• Recording — from scores to 78s to CDs to streaming

What Has Not Changed in 300 Years

• Ten fingers playing 88 keys
• The instrument of “one person’s orchestra”
• The pianist’s lifelong discipline
• Audiences concentrated on a single performance
• The root art of moving the heart with music

“The piano will remain humanity’s central instrument in the future too” — 300 years of lineage guarantees it.

The Piano Series Closes

This series traced 300 years of piano history in overview + 11 articles = 12 pieces.

To the reader:

• First, find one composer you love — Bach’s Goldberg, a Mozart sonata, Beethoven’s Moonlight, a Chopin nocturne, Liszt’s Liebestraum, Debussy’s Clair de lune, Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto, Gould’s 1955 Goldberg, Argerich’s Chopin concerto, Fujita’s Mozart — any of these
• Compare pianists across the world — the same piece as played by pianists of different eras and nationalities
• Go to a live performance — a dimension apart from any recording
• Try playing yourself — the piano is one of the great instruments you can learn alone
• Watch the YouTube broadcasts of the Chopin and Tchaikovsky Competitions — the discovery of young world talent

“With one piano and ten fingers you can access the entire 300 years of music history” — the piano’s special place.

The piano series ends here. We close the 300-year quiet dialogue.