Pianist Michael Shinn’s diverse career in music reflects his passion for both performance and education. Since becoming a faculty member at The Juilliard School at the age of 26, he has designed innovative lectures and courses on a variety of subjects, focusing largely on his specialty, the music of Franz Liszt. Dr. Shinn is the Artistic Director of the Liszt Festival at Juilliard, an innovative series of lecture-recitals celebrating the composer's bicentennial.

As a pianist, Dr. Shinn is in demand as recitalist and chamber musician across the country and abroad. He has performed at the New Millennium Festival in Gijon, Spain, is a frequent recitalist and masterclass technician at universities across the United States, and appears regularly as soloist on the Ten O’Clock Classics concert series in New York City. A passionate advocate of new music, Dr. Shinn recently gave the world premiere of Etudes for Piano by Ryan Francis at the Chelsea Art Museum with the Metropolis Ensemble in NY. He also performs regularly with his duo-piano partner, Jessica Chow; along with music from the standard repertoire, they make commissioning and premiering new works for the genre a focus of their career.

Educational outreach is always at the forefront of Dr. Shinn’s work. As co-founder and faculty member of the Vistamusic School in New York, he enhances young musicians’ learning experiences through interactive demonstrations and classes. He is also a Guest Artist for the Alabama State Council on the Arts, through which Dr. Shinn works with grade-school students in classroom settings to introduce them to the world of classical music. Dr. Shinn is co-founder and faculty member of the pianoSonoma Music Festival in Santa Rosa, CA.

Dr. Shinn received his Bachelor and Master of Music from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Herbert Stessin and Jerome Lowenthal, and his Doctor of Musical Art at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

He is also an Ironman triathlete, marathon runner, and distance cyclist.