20th-century classical pianists

Eva Knardahl Freiwald (10 May 1927 – 3 September 2006) was a Norwegian pianist, with a noted career both as a child prodigy and adult performer.
Her debut with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 12, in which she played three concertos (those by Johann Sebastian Bach in F minor, Joseph Haydn in D major and Carl Maria von Weber in C major), was received with rave reviews. Knardahl was a student of Mary Barrat Due, who was educated in Italy. Idar Karevold, a music professor in Oslo, said that Knardahl's Italian style was unique in Norway.
She started releasing records early. One of her first recordings was Edvard Grieg's "Wedding Day at Trollhaugen", which was released in 1946.
She emigrated at 19 to the United States, where she had a distinguished career with the Minnesota Orchestra for 15 years. She played on most continents, and for 15 years she was also employed as a pianist ("resident pianist") by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. In a later interview, she told about the US era that the famous composer Henry Mancini often visited the symphony orchestra in Minneapolis. He used to bring his chosen soloists with him during the performance of his compositions, but had so much confidence in Knardahl that he never brought any external pianist.
In 1952, Eva Knardahl was hired as a pianist and soloist in the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (MSO). Here she became responsible for all piano parts, and she was used in all sorts of different combinations of chamber music with piano, in addition to which she was given major tasks as the orchestra's regular soloist - including trips to Canada, Mexico and the East.
In the USA, collaboration with pianist Artur Rubinstein, composer Igor Stravinsky and conductors Rafael Kubelík, Henry Mancini and André Previn made great artistic progress. Later collaborations with conductors such as Sixten Erling and Kirill Kondrasjin led to successes in Europe.
She returned to Norway in 1967. She became a popular fixture on the Norwegian music scene and was named the first professor of chamber music at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Knardahl was awarded the Norwegian Spellemanspris twice, and she also won the Norwegian Critics' Prize in 1968. She died in Oslo, aged 79.
Knardahl is most known for her interpretations of the piano works of Edvard Grieg. She recorded the composer's complete piano music on 13 LPs for BIS Records in 1977-1980. The recordings were reissued in 2006 on 12 compact discs, also on BIS Records.

Kjell Bækkelund (6 May 1930 – 13 May 2004) was a Norwegian classical pianist.

Ricardo Castro Herrera (Rafael de la Santísima Trinidad Castro Herrera) (7 February 1864 – 27 November 1907) was a Mexican concert pianist and composer, considered the last romantic of the time of Porfirio Díaz.

Antonio Alberto García Guerrero (February 6, 1886 – November 7, 1959) was a Chilean composer, pianist, and teacher. While he is most famously remembered as the mentor of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, García influenced several generations of musicians through his many years of teaching at the Toronto Conservatory of Music.

JB Floyd (né James Robert Floyd; born June 2, 1929) is an American concert pianist (jazz, classical, experimental, avant-garde, and the like), composer, and music pedagogue at the collegiate level. Before retiring in 2013, Floyd spent 64 years as a music educator in higher education, including as chairman of keyboard performance at Northern Illinois University from 1962 to 1981 and chairman of keyboard performance at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music from 1982 to 2013. Floyd is a Yamaha Artist.

Ivan Roy Davis, Jr. (February 4, 1932 – March 12, 2018) was an American classical pianist and longstanding member of the faculty at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music.

Elly Ney (27 September 1882 – 31 March 1968) was a German romantic pianist who specialized in Beethoven, and was especially popular in Germany.

Cor de Groot (July 7, 1914 – May 26, 1993) was a Dutch pianist and composer.
He was born in Amsterdam. He studied piano with Egbert Veen and Ulferts Schults, and composition and conducting under Sem Dresden. In 1932 he graduated with highest honours, playing a piano concerto written by himself. After becoming a soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, he won the fifth prize at the 1936 international contest for pianists in Vienna. He played all over the world and recordings that exist demonstrate a strong sense of structure, a clean rhythmic attack and very precise dynamic shadings. He was a member of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition's jury in 1956.
In 1959 a nervous disorder developed in his right hand but he continued playing repertoire for the left hand. He arranged more than 80 pieces for the left hand; his Apparitions, voor piano (linkerhand alleen) (1961) were described by one reviewer as "intense and expressive piano music that should make it a joy for a pianist to develop his left hand." Slowly he regained power over his right hand. He became musical director of the Dutch Broadcasting Foundation and promoted Dutch contemporary music. He made many recordings but also continued composing. His compositions include music for piano solo such as Variations imaginaires (1967); orchestral music; vocal work; and chamber music such as Sonatine pastorale for oboe and piano (1961). It has been stated that Dutch composer Gerard Schurmann composed his Bagatelles (1945) for de Groot, but this is not, in fact, the case. He died in Amsterdam in 1993.

Gerard Hengeveld (December 7, 1910, in Kampen – October 28, 2001, in Bergen, North Holland) was a Dutch classical pianist, music composer and educationalist. He is especially known for his compositions of study material for piano. Other compositions include two piano concertos, a violin sonata, and a sonata for cello. Hengeveld was an able interpreter and performer of the music of Bach for piano and harpsichord. He gave regular concerts in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Some of his concerts were captured on record. Hengeveld was a professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Amongst his students was Dutch pianist and musicologist Frans Bouwman.Hengeveld died in 2001 at the age of 90, in Bergen. His closest living relative is Nicholas Hengeveld of Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Hans Henkemans (The Hague, 23 December 1913 – Nieuwegein, 29 December 1995) was a Dutch pianist, teacher, composer of classical music and psychiatrist.
Henkemans was one of the most important Dutch composers of his time. From 1926 to 1931 he studied piano and composition with Bernhard van den Sigtenhorst Meyer, and from 1933 to 1938 with Willem Pijper. Later he studied piano with George van Renesse. Henkemans was influenced by Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Willem Pijper.