Michelle Cann

Pianist Michelle Cann is a champion of the music of Florence B. Price and other African American composers. An important educator, she is on the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and she has been heavily involved with community music education initiatives in that city. Cann was born on June 1, 1988, and grew up in Avon Park, Florida. Music was a major part of her family life; her father was a teacher who directed a school band, a chorus, a bell choir, and a steel drum band. As a child, she played the violin and also the tuba, which, she observed, would not win her any popularity contests. Cann's older sister also pursued a career as a pianist, but Cann did not seriously commit herself to the piano until she was 12. "I think at that point it just clicked and I realized that music could be fun and that practicing had its benefits," she told National Public Radio (January 3, 2007). "You never would have heard me say that a few years earlier!" Cann made her concert debut at 14. She attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Paul Schenly and Daniel Shapiro and earning bachelor's and master's degrees. Cann went on to the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Robert McDonald and received an Artist's Diploma. While still a student there, she began working in the field of community arts education in Philadelphia, conducting two children's choruses in the Play On Philly program (inspired by Venezuela's famed El Sistema) and worked with City Year, Teach for America, and AmeriCorps to direct arts education to African American students and to underserved communities in general. She has continued this work as her concert and educational careers have grown. Prizes at the International Russian Music Piano Competition, the Blount Slawson Young Artists Competition, and the Wideman International Piano Competition helped launch her career, and she joined the staff of the Curtis Institute as a collaborative pianist. Cann has performed with major American ensembles, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Atlanta Symphony. On her own, she discovered the music of African American female composer Florence B. Price, just as much of Price's music was being unearthed. She gave the world premiere of Price's Piano Concerto in One Movement in New York in 2016 with the Dream Unfinished Orchestra and the Philadelphia premiere with the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin in 2021. The following year, Cann made her recording debut, joining the Catalyst Quartet in Price's Piano Quintet in A major on the album Uncovered, Vol. 2.
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