Liz Story

Liz Story (born October 28, 1950) is an American composer and solo pianist. She was born in San Diego, California, United States. She began her classical musical training as a child. Her family moved to Germany during her teens, and during this time she studied languages, philosophy, and poetry, in addition to her classical music studies. Upon her return to the United States, Liz moved to New York City, where she intended to continue her formal classical piano studies at Hunter College. But an outing with friends one night to the infamous music club The Bottom Line would forever change the trajectory of Liz's musical studies and of her career. The headliner that night was the legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans, with whom Liz was unfamiliar at the time. Struck by Evans' musical improvisation, Liz recalls, "It was suddenly clear how I was to study music." After the show she approached Evans and asked if he taught jazz. He did not, he told her, but recommended Sanford Gold, one of the premier jazz piano teachers of his time, who shortly thereafter took Liz on as a student. Later moving back to Southern California, Liz studied at the Dick Grove Music Workshops in Studio City. Story returned to California, studying music at UCLA and at the Dick Grove Music Workshops. She took a job playing piano at a French restaurant, but the piano lacked a stand for holding up sheet music, so she was compelled to improvise. She sent some tapes of her work to William Ackerman of Windham Hill Records, and he signed her to the label. Story composed and performed the songs "Forgiveness" and "Worth Winning" for the 1989 film Worth Winning. Her hands were used in the film to simulate the piano playing by actress Madeline Stowe.

Please enable Javascript to view this page competely.