Derek Hartman is a pianist from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is currently a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the Yale School of Music where he also received his Master of Music in 2021 under the instruction of Boris Slutsky. He completed his undergraduate studies in piano performance and music theory at Northwestern University in 2019 as a student of James Giles. Derek has appeared as a soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and he was awarded top prizes at the Music Teachers’ National Association Young Artist Piano Competition, the PianoArts North American Competition, and the Thaviu-Isaak Endowed Piano Competition. His performance engagements have taken him to such diverse locations as the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Kravis Center of the Performing Arts (West Palm Beach, Florida), and the Ruïnekerk in Bergen, Netherlands.
He is a recipient of numerous scholarships, including the 2023 Evelyn Bonar Storrs Scholarship, and he was awarded the 2023 Yale School of Music Alumni Prize and the 2020 Elizabeth Parisot Prize in recognition of his contributions to the Yale community. A dedicated music educator, Derek is currently a faculty member at the New School for Music Study at the Frances Clark Center, and he has served as a teaching assistant in the Analysis and Musicianship curriculum at Yale. Since 2018, Derek has partnered with PianoArts of Wisconsin to design and present dozens of music educational programs across Milwaukee. Derek is also an avid chamber musician, a harpsichordist and continuo player, and he pursues endeavors in music theory and pedagogy.