Seymour Bernstein

Seymour Abraham Bernstein (April 24, 1927 – April 30, 2026) was an American pianist, composer, and teacher. He is the subject of the documentary Seymour: An Introduction directed by the actor Ethan Hawke.

Life and career Bernstein was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up there; he graduated from Weequahic High School in Newark in 1945. He began teaching piano at the age of fifteen, During the Korean War, he gave concerts on the front lines and for military leaders. His concert career took him to Europe, Asia, and to many places in the Americas. He wrote With Your Own Two Hands and 20 Lessons in Keyboard Choreography, which has been published in German, Japanese, Korean, and Russian.

He studied with Alexander Brailowsky, Clifford Curzon, Jan Gorbaty, Nadia Boulanger, and George Enescu. In 1969 he made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, playing the world premiere of Heitor Villa-Lobos's Concerto No. 2. He was the winner of the First Prize and Prix Jacques Durand at Fontainebleau, the National Federation of Music Clubs Award for Furthering American Music Abroad, a Beebe Foundation grant, two Martha Baird Rockefeller grants, and four U.S. State Department grants. On December 18, 2004, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, northwest of Washington, D.C. In 2015, actor and filmmaker Ethan Hawke made a documentary about Bernstein entitled Seymour: An Introduction. In 2020, Bernstein recorded a series of pedagogical lessons for tonebase piano covering works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Schumann, and technical exercises like arpeggios.

Bernstein died in Damariscotta, Maine, on April 30, 2026, at the age of 99.