...grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and played Brahms in her first public concert at age 5 in the historic recital hall of Mills College where she was a piano and composition student under Joyce Grantham, in their special music programs. As a teen, Donna went on to study with John Delevoryas and Sulamita Aronovsky, also working with Lili Kraus and James Dick during summer institutes. But her principal teacher, who most influenced Donna's approach to both playing and teaching, was Mary Sauer, longtime Principal Keyboard of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
As a teenage artist, Donna performed 70 - 80 concerts per year including solo recitals, duo recitals (with major instrumentalists and opera singers who came to town and needed a fanatical sight-reader), chamber music festivals, and many piano concerti with orchestras, all across the USA.
Graduating with B.A. and M.A. degrees (music and sociology) at age 19, she won a Marshall Scholarship, moved to the UK and began performing concerti and solo recitals in the major halls and festivals across Great Britain and all of Europe, while teaching at University of York and then later serving as Artist in Residence at Oxford University. Donna became a protégé of the late Sir Georg Solti after he heard her play in London, and living in Europe for many years thereafter, she has served as as an Artistic Ambassador for both the UK and the USA to countries worldwide.
She has won awards for her recordings, and enjoyed interpreting piano concerti (both standard repertoire and works written expressly for her) with renowned conductors; she has written her own cadenzas for the Mozart concerti and has conducted many of them from the keyboard; she has given masterclasses and lecture-recitals at music schools and universities worldwide, and performed several highly acclaimed tours of Russia; created/produced new concert series and music festivals on three continents; hosted numerous television programs about cross-cultural music; and has been the subject of full-length specials on the BBC, Hong Kong Radio and Television, NPR, PBS affiliates, RAI (Italy) and the national networks of countless other countries.

Based once again in the USA, Donna continues to love performing solo recitals and concerti with orchestras; doing piano trios, quartets and quintets with chamber ensembles; and serving as collaborative pianist with opera stars of La Scala, Royal Opera, Munich Opera, the Bolshoi and the Met, as well as with major instrumental soloists. She is a very active recording artist and live- broadcast performer for radio, television and video productions. She continues to serve as Founder and Artistic Director of ListenForLife.org, the award-winning global nonprofit she launched in London years ago to serve and inspire the classical musicians of all cultures. And she is yet again in the process of launching a new global broadcast series - so stay tuned.

Donna Stoering, concert pianist....

(summary version)

..says her earliest memory is of being backstage at a huge community theater, excitedly waiting to go on as a "baby ballerina", aged two and a half. The ballet teacher later explained to Donna's parents that the tot had "absolutely no coordination or physical balance" but clearly felt the phrases, beats and rhythms of each new piece "rather instinctively and immediately" so she suggested they try to obtain a piano and some lessons. No teachers could be found who were willing to take a child that young, so Donna's mother signed up for the lessons herself, came home and shared what she learned, and at age four Donna was accepted into the special music programs at Mills College in California. She studied piano and composition there for the next 8 years under Joyce Grantham, a student of famed French composer Darius Milhaud who was in residence at Mills during that period.

Donna Stoering, concert pianist...

(the full story***)