Biography

Since winning the Gold Medal at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in 1998, American pianist Lori Sims has become firmly established as one of the most beloved and respected pianists in the music world today.

She has performed throughout North and South America, Europe, and China, including guest artist performances with the NordDeutscheRadio Orchester (Hannover, Germany) the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Utah, Indianapolis (IN), Rockford (IL) and Kalamazoo (MI) Symphony Orchestras. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Sims has been featured at the El Paso Chamber Music Festival (TX) and performed with Kalamazoo’s Fontana Chamber Music Players and Opus 21. She also has performed with the Spokane (WA), Denver (Colorado), and Memphis (TN) Chamber Orchestras. 

Ms. Sims received critical acclaim from Bernard Holland in The New York Times for her 2000 Alice Tully Hall debut; she also has performed in Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. Recognized for her outstanding technique, as well as the breadth of her repertoire, Ms. Sims has made an unprecedented 11 appearances at the prestigious Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, Michigan as a featured recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber artist, and master class instructor.

Highlights of her 2019/20 concert season included a solo recital in Bogota, Columbia and a duo piano recital with Yu-Lien The at Steinway Hall in New York. As the winner of the 1993 American Pianists Association, she has also been invited to perform at the organization’s 40th anniversary concert celebration in November 2019.

Ms. Sims joined the faculty of Western Michigan University in 1997 and was named the John T. Bernhard Professor of Music in 2003. In high demand as an artist-teacher, she has performed and taught master classes at the Bay View Music Festival (Petoskey, MI); the Eastern Music Festival (Greensboro, NC); the Internationale Konsertarbeitswochen (Gosler, Germany); and Western Michigan University’s high school summer music camp (“Seminar”).

She has recorded three CDs on the Naxos label, including Lori Sims: Romantic; Lori Sims: American Music; and a live recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations which CD Classics called “a masterful, heartfelt, and simply beautiful performance.” She also collaborated with cellist Natalia Khoma to record a CD of works by Schubert and Schumann, and with violinist Renata Artman Knific on a recording of three sonatas of William Bolcom. Her most recent recording is a collaboration with Jeremy Siskind (piano) and Andrew Rathbun (saxophone) of Debussy Preludes played first in their original form by Ms. Sims, then as jazz improvisations by Mr. Siskind and Mr. Rathbun. The album was produced by Judith Sherman.

Ms. Sims received her Bachelor’s Degree from the Peabody Conservatory, where she was a student of Leon Fleisher; her Master’s Degree from the Yale School of Music as a student of Daniel Pollack and Claude Frank; and an Artist Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik, Theater, und Medien in Hannover, Germany under the tutelage of Arie Vardi.

“Her playing is extraordinary: authoritative, insightful, and endlessly interesting. It's hard to imagine a more convincing performance of these American classics.”

— MLive

“Her playing was a pleasure to hear, and it is comforting to think that such sound judgment and high standards are being passed on to her students.”

— New York Times

“Ms. Sims showed that she has a rare gift for bringing audiences closer to [twentieth-century] works.”

— New York Concert Review

“naturally singing style, imaginative phrasing, and varied articulations”

— Classics Today