Early Years and Education

Steven Graff was born in Chicago where he studied piano with Eloise Niwa and made his debut as a soloist with The Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...

. He went on to study at The Juilliard School

Juilliard School

The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

 as a Petschek Scholarship student, where his teachers included Adele Marcus

Adele Marcus

Adele Marcus was an American pianist, but better known as a teacher of many other famous pianists.She was born in Kansas City, the last of 13 children of a rabbi of Russian descent...

, Beveridge Webster

Beveridge Webster

Beveridge Webster was an American pianist and educator.Beveridge Webster studied with his father, initially, and in 1921, at age 14, he began five years of study in Europe, first at the American Academy at Fontainebleau, then at the Paris Conservatory with Isidor Philipp and Nadia Boulanger...

 and Herbert Stessin. He received a Doctorate of Musical Arts from The Graduate School of CUNY, with a doctoral thesis entitled Chopin performance tradition and its relationship to analysis. In 1986 he was a winner of the Juilliard School's eighth annual Gina Bachauer International Piano Scholarship Competition.

Performer

Steven Graff has toured Norway, Japan and throughout the United States and Europe. He was a prizewinner in The Casadesus

Cleveland International Piano Competition

The Cleveland International Piano Competition takes place biennially in Cleveland, Ohio. The initial Competition in 1975 and the nine others that followed were sponsored jointly by the Robert Casadesus Society and the Cleveland Institute of Music to honor the memory of French pianist Robert...

 and Stravinsky International Competitions. He has given performances at Zankel, Weill and Stern Auditoriums at Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

, and the Kaye Playhouse and Lang Hall at Hunter College, Alice Tully Hall

Alice Tully Hall

Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. It is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assisted in the construction of the hall...

 and Merkin Hall  in New York City, and his performances have been broadcast on New York radio stations WQXR

WQXR-FM

WQXR-FM is an American classical radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, and serving the New York City metropolitan area. It is the most-listened-to classical-music station in the United States, with an average quarter-hour audience of 63,000...

 and WNCN

WNCN

WNCN is the NBC affiliate television station in the Triangle region of North Carolina , broadcasting on digital channel 17. It is licensed to Goldsboro, but its studios are just outside of downtown Raleigh...

, and Chicago's WFMT

WFMT

WFMT is an FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a format of fine arts, classical music programming, and shows exploring such genres as folk and jazz). The station is managed by Window To The World Communications, Inc., owner of WTTW, one of Chicago's two Public Broadcasting Service ...

. Graff has premiered new music and recorded contemporary works on the Centaur Records

Centaur Records

Centaur Records is one of the oldest and largest independent classical labels in America. The company is located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and was founded in 1976. Their recordings are available in major markets throughout the world, and their catalog includes classical, historical, pops,...

 and Capstone Records

Capstone Records

Capstone Records is an American classical music record label focusing particularly on contemporary classical music. It was established by Richard Brooks in 1986, and was based in Brooklyn, New York...

 Labels. Solo Concerto performances include the Hunter Symphony, The University of Arizona Orchestra at Flagstaff, The New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Chicago Chamber Orchestra, The Skokie Valley Symphony and The Northshore Philharmonia. He has given lecture/recitals at The Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation

Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation

The Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is best known for its Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, the second largest piano competition in the United States...

  and at The Aloha International Piano Festival in Hawaii. Steven Graff is a Steinway Artist.

Teacher

Steven Graff serves on the faculty at New York's Hunter College

Hunter College

Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...

 and at The Macaulay Honors College of The City University of New York

City University of New York

The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...

.