Terry Eder

Terry Eder, founder of Key Pianists, was born in Detroit and began her piano studies at age four. She gave her first public solo recital at sixteen at the Detroit Institute of Arts, earning early recognition with the Louise Smith Petersen Memorial Award. She made her New York debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2004 as a winner of the Artists International Competition.

She earned her undergraduate degree at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, followed by a Master of Music with distinction from the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington. During her graduate studies, she received a research grant from the International Research & Exchanges Board that enabled a residency at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. There, she studied with the Hungarian pianist and conductor Zoltán Kocsis and immersed herself in the language and culture of the Hungarian piano tradition.

Her career as a pianist is particularly noted for her mastery of Hungarian repertoire—Béla Bartók, Ernst von Dohnányi, and Zoltán Kodály—and for performances at major venues including Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall, both at Carnegie Hall (New York), Alice Tully Hall (New York), the Gasteig (Munich), and other stages throughout Europe and Asia.

Eder’s discography includes three solo recordings: Portrait (2011), Dohnányi: Piano Pieces (2013, Hungaroton), and Bartók Piano Music (MSR Classics), the last of which received significant critical acclaim in publications such as Gramophone.

Throughout her career, Eder has embodied a blend of rigorous discipline and deep musical insight—bringing to her performances the poise of a veteran artist and the intellectual curiosity of a scholar.

Eder has performed twice on the Series. Her first recital, on March 2, 2017, offered a deeply expressive and thoughtfully curated program featuring works by Bartók, Schubert, Dohnányi, and Schumann/Liszt. She returned on April 8, 2019, with a wide-ranging program of Dohnányi, Schubert, Beethoven, Kodály, and Debussy. In both appearances, her performances revealed technical mastery and a profound connection to the repertoire—embodying the Series’ mission to showcase pianists with distinctive artistic voices.