In the more than 35 years he has been performing on the concert stage, American pianist Murray Perahia has become one of the most sought-after and cherished pianists of our time, performing in all of the major international music centers and with every leading orchestra. He is the Principal Guest Conductor of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, with whom he has toured as conductor and pianist throughout the USA, Europe, Japan, and South East Asia. Born in New York, Mr. Perahia started playing piano at the age of four, and later attended Mannes College, where he majored in conducting and composition. His summers were spent in Marlboro, where he collaborated with such musicians as Rudolf Serkin, Pablo Casals and the members of the Budapest String Quartet. He also studied at the time with Mieczyslaw Horszowski. In subsequent years, he developed a close friendship with Vladimir Horowitz, whose perspective and personality were an abiding inspiration. In 1972, Mr. Perahia won the Leeds International Piano Competition and in 1973 he gave his first concert at the Aldeburgh Festival, where he worked closely with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, accompanying the latter in many Lieder recitals. Mr. Perahia was co-artistic director of the Festival from 1981 to 1989. Highlights of Mr. Perahia's engagements this season include a European tour with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and a recital tour of Asia, followed by a recital tour of North America, including performances in Vancouver, Berkeley, Kansas City, Washington D.C., Quebec, and New York’s Lincoln Center. He is also artist-in-residence at the Berlin Philharmonic, performing there several times throughout the season. Mr. Perahia has a wide and varied discography. He is the recipient of two Grammy awards and numerous Grammy nominations and has also won several Gramophone Awards. Recently, Mr. Perahia embarked on an ambitious project to edit the complete Beethoven Sonatas for the Henle Urtext Edition. He also produced and edited numerous hours of recordings of recently discovered master classes by the legendary pianist Alfred Cortot, which resulted in the highly acclaimed Sony CD release "Alfred Cortot: The Master Classes". Mr. Perahia is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, and he holds an honorary doctorate from Leeds University. In 2004, he was awarded an honorary KBE by Her Majesty The Queen, in recognition of his outstanding service to music.