Barbara Nissman

A member of the inaugural class of Steinway Legends chosen from over a century of Steinway Artists, and a recent inductee into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, pianist Barbara Nissman has performed with major conductors and orchestras on nearly every continent. She believes her mission is to inspire and uplift people through her music, and Barbara is still sharing her passion and joy with audiences around the world. She makes music relevant, connecting the composer to the listener, touching souls in the process.

Her recordings of Liszt, Prokofiev, Bartók and Ginastera are considered “definitive,” and she has garnered high praise for her series on 19th century composers, Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Rachmaninoff. She is also in demand as a writer, lecturer, guest artist and clinician both in the US and abroad.

Long associated with the music of Argentine composer, Alberto Ginastera, Barbara is the dedicatee of the composer's final work, the Sonata No. 3. Regarded as a serious Prokofiev scholar, Nissman made history in 1989 by being the first person to perform his complete piano sonatas in a series of three recitals in both New York and London. Her recordings represented the first complete set of Prokofiev's piano sonatas made available on CD. BBC Magazine selected Nissman's recordings as the best recordings of Prokofiev's piano music. The Prokofiev Family Trust in the UK awarded Barbara a grant to film a video masterclass on his three War Sonatas.

Recently Barbara returned to Amsterdam and appeared before a live audience of 10-12,000 and a television audience of 1.2 million to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Prinsengracht concerts that she helped initiate in 1982. These concerts have remained a popular summer tradition with audiences arriving on foot or in their boats to listen.

In 2014, at Steinway Hall in New York, Nissman launched her record label Three Oranges Recordings. In 2017, the Three Oranges Foundation was established with the mission of making classical music accessible and relevant and supporting Nissman’s educational projects.

A West Virginian “by choice,” Barbara now makes her home on a farm in Greenbrier County.