BIOGRAPHY
Elizabeth Joy Roe is an internationally celebrated pianist recognized for her poetic depth, charismatic virtuosity, and boundary-defying artistry. Described as “brilliant” and “riveting” (The New York Times), “an artist to be taken seriously” (Chicago Tribune), “incisive, lyrical” (BBC Music Magazine) and “electrifying” (The Dallas Morning News), she has performed as a recitalist, orchestral soloist, duo pianist, and chamber musician across five continents, appearing at major venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Seoul Arts Center, the Esplanade (Singapore), the National Performing Arts Center (Beijing), the National Concert Hall (Taipei), Auckland Town Hall (New Zealand), Salle Cortot (Paris), the Romanian Athenaeum (Bucharest), Teatro Argentino (Buenos Aires), the New World Center (Miami), Salle Bourgie (Montréal), and the Tippet Rise Art Center (Montana). Festival appearances include the Gilmore, Ravinia, Santa Fe Chamber Music, Festpiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Banff, and Bravo! Vail festivals.
Roe’s versatile discography on the Decca Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Masterworks, and Steinway labels spans repertoire from John Field’s complete Nocturnes to the Britten and Barber concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as Billboard chart-topping duo albums as half of the groundbreaking Anderson & Roe Piano Duo. Since 2017, she has hosted the live webcasts of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, one of the most watched classical music events in the world.
Equally at home in traditional and unconventional settings, Roe has performed for the United Nations, in PBS’s Jazz & the Philharmonic alongside Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea, and at global thought-leadership forums including the EG Conference and La Ciudad de las Ideas. She has appeared as concerto soloist with dozens of orchestras worldwide, including the San Francisco Symphony, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Liverpool Philharmonic. A noted collaborator, she has performed with an array of distinguished artists including conductor Leonard Slatkin, violinist Jennifer Frautschi, violist Richard O’Neill, cellist Ralph Kirshbaum, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, the Parker Quartet, and fellows of the New World Symphony, and she is a founding member of Carnegie Hall’s affiliate ensemble Decoda. She is a driving force behind the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo, whose genre-defying performances and visionary music videos (garnering millions of views) have attracted international acclaim and media coverage from MTV, NPR, the BBC, Gramophone, and The Huffington Post.
A Chicago native, Roe attracted international recognition at age 13 with the top prize at the IBLA Grand Prize Competition in Italy and made her concerto debut at 15 with the Chicago Philharmonic. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees as a full scholarship student and received the prestigious William Petschek Award. Passionate about arts education, she has held faculty positions at Smith College and Sonoma State University, mentored for the National YoungArts Foundation, given masterclasses at universities and conservatories around the world, and led community projects through Ensemble Connect, a joint initiative of Carnegie Hall and Juilliard. In recognition of her leadership endeavors, she was awarded the McGraw-Hill Companies’ Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach.
Elizabeth is a Steinway Artist and Soros Fellow whose mission is to connect through the inspiration, joy and essential humanity of music.
Photo credit: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco