13 Facts About Seymour Bernstein

Seymour Bernstein was born on April 24,1927 and is an American pianist, composer, and teacher.

Seymour Bernstein is the subject of the documentary Seymour: An Introduction directed by the actor Ethan Hawke.

Seymour Bernstein began teaching piano at the age of fifteen, when his teacher at the time, Clara Husserl, a pupil of Theodor Leschetizky, arranged for him to supervise the practicing of some of her gifted younger pupils.

Seymour Bernstein soon had a class of pupils of his own.

Seymour Bernstein achieved local fame as a performer, winning the Griffith Artist Award at the age of seventeen.

Seymour Bernstein wrote With Your Own Two Hands and 20 Lessons in Keyboard Choreography, which has been published in German, Japanese, Korean, and Russian.

Seymour Bernstein is the winner of the First Prize and Prix Jacques Durand at Fontainebleau, the National Federation of Music Clubs Award for Furthering American Music Abroad, a Beebe Foundation grant, two Martha Baird Rockefeller grants, and four State Department grants.

Seymour Bernstein made a point of offering master classes and lecture recitals where his concert tours took him.

Seymour Bernstein ceased performing in 1977 in order to concentrate on teaching, composing, and working in other creative outlets; he did not tell anyone that his farewell recital would be his last.

Seymour Bernstein has composed music ranging from teaching material for students of all levels to sophisticated concert pieces.

Seymour Bernstein maintains a private studio in New York City and is an adjunct associate professor of music and music education at New York University.

On December 18,2004, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia northwest of Washington, DC In 2015, actor and filmmaker Ethan Hawke made a documentary about Bernstein entitled: "Seymour: An Introduction".

In 2020, Seymour Bernstein recorded a series of pedagogical lessons for tonebase piano covering works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Schumann, and technical exercises like arpeggios.