4 Hands 2 Hearts 1 Piano: Eckart Sellheim and Dian Baker

Eckart Sellheim and Dian Baker perform an all-American program of duets for piano featuring works by Corigliani, Barber, Copland, Bryan Adams, and Morton Feldman. Sellheim and Baker have combined their many years of artistic experiences into the perfect medium: the piano duo. Since 1998, they have concertized in the U.S. and Europe. They feel equally at home with the mainstream repertoire, as well as with lesser-known contemporary works for piano four-hands. The duo has performed the complete four-hand works of Schubert on a variety of pianos and fortepianos.

Eckart Sellheim received his musical training in Germany and Switzerland; Adolf Drescher and Jakob Gimpel were among his teachers. He was appointed to the faculty of the two major conservatories in Cologne and continued his academic career as an Associate Professor of Piano and Chamber Music at the University of Michigan. From 1989 until 2008, he was Professor and Director of Collaborative Piano at Arizona State University. He also served as Guest Lecturer of Fortepiano and Performance Practice at the Musikhochschule in Trossingen, as well as at various music academies in Germany, and has taught numerous masterclasses in the U.S. and several European countries. Mr. Sellheim maintains an active performance schedule. He appears regularly on radio programs in Germany and in the U.S. and has made more than 20 recordings as piano and fortepiano soloist and collaborative pianist, a number of them with his late brother, renowned German cellist Friedrich-Jürgen Sellheim.

Internationally acclaimed pianist Dian Baker has toured both as soloist and chamber music collaborator in 30 countries on four continents and has served, together with cellist Roger Drinkall, as Artistic Ambassador for the United States for more than 900 concerts worldwide. She has performed extensively in the Americas. Her concert appearances have been broadcasted on radio and television in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Germany, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, India, and Pakistan. Dr. Baker has recorded on the Pyramid, Klavier, Sanctus, Tantara and Wilson Audiophone labels; numerous works by American composers have been commissioned and premiered by her. Dr. Baker received the "Outstanding Woman of the Year" award from Brigham Young University, where she directed the Collaborative Piano area for ten years as a Senior Lecturer. She served on the faculty of the Mesa Community College in Arizona and has served as Principal Pianist for the Phoenix Boys Choir, with whom she toured regularly in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.