Samuel Sanders

Samuel Sanders (June 27, 1937 – July 9, 1999) was an American classical collaborative pianist and pedagogue.

He was born with a congenital heart condition that required him to undergo surgery at the age of nine.[1] His first piano teacher was Hedwig Kanner-Rosenthal.[2] He studied at Hunter College and later received a master's degree at the Juilliard School, where he studied solo piano with Irwin Freundlich and Martin Canin.[3] While at Juilliard, he also studied accompanying with Sergius Kagen.[4]

As a collaborative pianist, he worked with many important classical musicians including Joshua Bell, Håkan Hagegård, Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman, Itzhak Perlman, Rachel Barton Pine, Leonard Rose, Beverly Sills, and Robert White.[5] With Perlman, he won two Grammy Awards in 1981 for "The Spanish Album" and "Music for Two Violins."[6] With Chilean cellist Andrés Díaz, Sanders formed the Díaz-Sanders Duo.[7]

Sanders was the founder and artistic director of the Cape and Islands Chamber Music Festival in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.[8] He received honorary doctorates from Lehman College and the St. Louis Conservatory of Music.[9] He taught at the Juilliard School and the Peabody Institute, creating accompanying programs at both schools.[10]

Samuel Sanders died from liver failure at New York Presbyterian Hospital in 1999. He was 62 and lived in Manhattan.[11]