Stuart Isacoff, is a pianist, composer and writer, and the founding editor of the magazine Piano Today. Mr. Isacoff is the author of the highly acclaimed Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization (Knopf/Vintage). He teaches a graduate course in the philosophy of music at the Purchase College Conservatory of Music (SUNY), and has given lectures and piano performances at venues here and abroad, including for The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Verbier Festival and Academy, The Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, and many others. His piano programs often combine classical repertoire with jazz improvisation, demonstrating the threads that may connect musical works created centuries and continents apart. This past September he gave a series of lecture/recitals throughout Italy upon the publication of the Italian edition of Temperamento. A winner of the prestigious ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence in writing about music, he is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal and many music periodicals