American Piano Awards

American Piano Awards is a non-profit arts organization that supports the careers of young, American, world-class jazz and classical pianists through its biennial competitions. Competition winners receive cash and significant career assistance, including representation, recording opportunities, worldwide professional engagements, and an artist-in-residency post at the University of Indianapolis. 

Danish-American pianist and comedian Victor Borge, Kimball International executive Tony Habig, and former Carnegie Hall director Julius Bloom founded the organization in New York City in 1979 as the Beethoven Foundation. The founders established the organization to help “young Americans to enter international competitions” and to provide a “bridge from the academic to the international concert stage.” In Europe and Asia, government agencies provide this kind of support.  

In 1981, three classical pianists became the first winners of the National Piano Fellowship Auditions held in New York City. The following year the Beethoven Foundation moved its national headquarters to Indianapolis because of its central location and affordability. Borge and Habig also had Indiana connections. Habig had lived in Jasper, Indiana at one time, and Butler University had provided Borge with the opportunity to conduct as a serious musician for its Romantic Festival where he made connections with faculty in the Jordan College of Fine Arts.  

The organization was renamed the American Pianists Association in 1989 to reflect an expansion of its scope to include jazz as well as classical music. Competitions for jazz pianists began in 1992. The American Pianists Association also produced the Indy Jazz Fest between 2003 to 2008. 

The American Pianists Association rebranded as the American Piano Awards in 2024 to better reflect its core focus on piano competitions and to more clearly communicate its mission to the public, highlighting the organization’s activity of awarding exceptional young American pianists through competitions in both jazz and classical music. 

The Awards take place over an entire year through adjudicated public recitals and community engagement activities in Indianapolis, engaging finalists in a variety of musical settings. Winners receive a prize worth over $200,000, making it one of the most lucrative honors in the world for a young pianist. In non-competition years American Piano Awards presents a piano recital series at venues around Indianapolis featuring past Awards winners, laureates, and prominent touring pianists. 

The American Piano Awards has helped launch the careers of more than 49 classical and jazz pianists since its founding in 1979.