Hannah Shields has performed widely throughout the United States as both a soloist and a chamber musician. She recently appeared in Carnegie Hall as a soloist under the baton of Itzhak Perlman. She has also performed in such venues as Weill Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Seattle Opera House and Boston's Jordan Hall; and has given recitals at many colleges and universities.
Ms. Shields began her piano studies with Elaine Felder at the Music Institute of Chicago. She first gained recognition, at the age of nine, as a prize winner in the YKAA International Piano Competition in Winter Park, Florida. Most recently, she was a top prize winner in the Kosciuszko Chopin Competition in 2002.
Highly regarded as a chamber musician, she has participated in such festivals as the Yellow Barn Music Festival, the Banff Chamber Music Festival, the Taos School of Music, and the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival. She has collaborated with such well-known artists as Barbara Stein Mallow, Itzhak Perlman, Kathy Murdock, Pinchas Zukerman, and Andre Emelianoff. In 2001 she received the Carmen Mihalache Dimulescu Memorial Award, given by the Cleveland Institute of Music in recognition of outstanding collaborative achievement by a young pianist.
Ms. Shields studied with Daniel Shapiro at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she earned her B.M. degree and was awarded the Arthur Loesser prize for excellence in piano performance. This was followed by graduate studies with Claude Frank at Yale University, where she earned an M.M. degree, and with Vivian Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory of Music.