BIOGRAPHY

ELIZABETH JOY ROE is widely lauded for her poetic and passionate artistry as a soloist, duo pianist, and chamber musician. Hailed “brilliant” (The New York Times), “an artist to be taken seriously” (The Chicago Tribune), “incisive, lyrical and tender” (BBC Music Magazine), “sublime” (Classical Ear), and “electrifying” (The Dallas Morning News), she has appeared at major venues on five continents, including 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), the Ravinia Festival (Chicago), Salle Bourgie (Montréal), and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany).

Elizabeth’s multifaceted career features a plethora of artistic projects. She can be heard on the Decca Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, and Steinway labels in recordings such as the complete Nocturnes by John Field; the Britten and Barber Piano Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Emil Tabakov; a solo album, Images Poetiques; and five piano duo albums which have spent dozens of weeks at the top of the Billboard classical charts. Additional career highlights include hosting the webcasts of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2017 and 2022; the PBS broadcast of “Jazz & the Philharmonic” (in which she performed alongside jazz legends Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea, and others); the Carnegie Hall premiere of Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen for the composer's centennial celebration hosted by Pierre Boulez; performance presentations for the United Nations and at international leadership symposia like the EG Conference, Chicago Ideas Week, and La Ciudad de las Ideas; an artistic residency sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Argentina; editions for Alfred Music; directorial and mentorship projects with the National YoungArts Foundation; and performance broadcasts on NPR and the BBC.

Elizabeth has collaborated with an array of esteemed artists including conductors Leonard Slatkin and James Conlon, violinists Jennifer Frautschi and Daniel Hope, violist Richard O’Neill, cellist Ralph Kirshbaum, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, the Parker Quartet, jazz pianist Shelly Berg, and fellows of the New World Symphony. She has made over 50 concerto appearances with orchestras around the world, including the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Liverpool Philharmonic. In 2003, she stepped in on short notice to replace the late John Browning for subscription performances of the Barber Piano Concerto with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. Elizabeth is a member of the chamber music collective Decoda (Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall) and one half of the groundbreaking Anderson & Roe Piano Duo, whose concerts, compositions, and Emmy-nominated music videos (viewed by millions on YouTube) have captivated audiences worldwide.

Committed to arts education and advocacy, Elizabeth was one of the inaugural fellows of Ensemble Connect (a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education); as part of this postgraduate fellowship, she performed chamber music regularly at Carnegie Hall, taught at PS 131Q in Queens, and co-directed the Children's Music Campaign NYC. Elizabeth has subsequently held faculty positions at Smith College as Visiting Artist and Lecturer in Music and at Sonoma State University as Weill Hall Artist-in-Residence. In recognition of her educational and leadership endeavors, she was awarded the McGraw-Hill Companies’ Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach.

A Chicago native, Elizabeth’s career was launched at the age of 13 with the grand prize at the IBLA Grand Prize International Piano Competition in Italy. She made her concerto debut two years later with the Chicago Philharmonic. Her career honors include the William Petschek Award and top prizes from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the Music for Youth Foundation, and the National Association for Professional Asian Women. In 2008 she was featured in the cover story of Symphony Magazine as one of “Six on the Rise: Young Artists to Watch.” She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School as a full scholarship student, graduating with Scholastic Distinction for her thesis on representations of music in the fiction of Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust, and E.M. Forster. A Steinway Artist and Soros Fellow, Elizabeth’s mission is to connect with others through the inspiration, joy and essential humanity of music. 

www.elizabethjoyroe.com