Teaches at 92nd Street Y
William Kinderman is professor of music and the Leo M. Klein and Elaine Krown Klein Chair in Performance Studies at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He is a formidable concert pianist, chamber musician and an international authority on the music and creative process of Ludwig van Beethoven.
His many books include Beethoven: A Political Artist in Revolutionary Times, The Creative Process in Music from Mozart to Kurtág, and Wagner’s “Parsifal.” His latest book, Beethoven: A Political Artist in Revolutionary Times (2020), marks the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth (University of Chicago Press; German and Chinese translations forthcoming).
He received an award for lifetime achievement from the Humboldt Foundation in 2010. Kinderman has been praised for his “intellectual energy and distinctive insight” by the New York Times.
Kinderman received his bachelor of arts degree at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. He earned his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and taught at the University of Victoria in British Columbia for 20 years, while also holding guest appointments in Berlin. His recent lecture recitals have taken him to Vienna, Bonn, Paris, Oslo, Barcelona, Beijing, Shanghai, New York, Boston as well as other cities in Europe, Asia and North America.