Utilisateur:VictoriadeWitt/Brouillon

Walter Witt (b. Walter Simmons Witt in 1962, Pasadena Calif.) is an American-born classical pianist, composer and educator.  

He is the son of the late Charles B. Witt, Jr., a prominent thoracic surgeon in Los Angeles, California, and Colette C. Witt. His sister is Alex Witt, the news anchor on MSNBC.

Witt began studying piano at the age of 5 with Mae Gilbert Reese, a student of Nadia Boulanger and legendary pianist Alfred Cortot in Paris.  At age 12, he debuted with the Doctors Symphony and later with the Westchester-Marina del Rey symphony (today the Culver City Symphony), performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D minor.   He was first prize winner in the California Music Teachers Association piano competition in 1979, participating in masterclasses with the pianist Menachem Pressler, founder of the Beaux Arts Trio.

Witt graduated from Harvard School (today Harvard-Westlake School) in 1980. He attended Yale University, graduating in 1984, and Georgetown University, graduating from the Graduate School of Foreign Service in 1992.

Following an international business career in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, he settled in France with his wife and four children and attended the Rachmaninoff conservatory in Paris, re-dedicating himself to teaching, performing and writing about music and the piano.  

Witt specializes in the “French school,” notably Chopin, Fauré and Debussy. He performs regularly in public and private settings in France and abroad.  

In 2018, he started a highly acclaimed concert lecture tour on Chopin in the historic “New Athens” quarter in Paris, home to Chopin and other luminaries of the Romantic Movement.

Witt divides his time between homes in Paris and Normandy, France.