Born in Motown, Lisa Kaplan is a pianist specializing in the performance of new work by living composers. Kaplan is also the founding pianist of the four-time Grammy Award-winning sextet Eighth Blackbird. She has won numerous awards, performed all over the country and has premiered new pieces by hundreds of composers, including Andy Akiho, Chen Yi, Derek Bermel, Jennifer Higdon, Amy Beth Kirsten, David Lang, Nico Muhly, George Perle and Steve Reich. Kaplan has had the great pleasure to collaborate and make music with an eclectic array of incredibly talented people, including Mario Batali, Jeremy Denk, Bryce Dessner, Philip Glass, Glenn Kotche, Will Oldham (a.k.a. Bonnie Prince Billy), Gustavo Santaolalla, Robert Spano, Dawn Upshaw, and Michael Ward-Bergeman, to name a few. Recently she has greatly enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to do some composing and arranging for Eighth Blackbird. Kaplan is a true foodie, gourmet cook, avid reader, crossword and Scrabble addict, enjoys baking ridiculously complicated pastry and loves outdoor adventures. She has summited Mt. Kilimanjaro, braved the Australian outback, stared an enormous elephant in the face in Tanzania’s Ngorogoro Crater, and survived close encounters with grizzly bears in the Brooks Range of Alaska.