Guest Artists & Lectures
Each edition of Ars Pianistica welcomes select guest artists and industry leaders who offer participants insight beyond the studio — perspectives from performance, record production, artistic planning, media, and the evolving landscape of the music world. Through lectures and informal discussion, participants gain practical knowledge relevant to today’s professional pianists.
Producer, Executive, and Founder of Karma Studios
Guest Artist — Chris Craker
Chris Craker is a multi-Grammy-nominated producer and former Senior Vice President of Sony Masterworks, overseeing Sony Classical and BMG Classics in New York and London. A rare figure who bridges performance, production, executive leadership, and entrepreneurship, he has produced over 550 classical, jazz, and film recordings and collaborated with leading artists, composers, and studios worldwide. His work includes major soundtracks such as Interstellar and The Little Prince, and recent projects span Star Wars: Galaxy — The Making Of and the award-winning George Michael documentary Portrait Of The Artist. Craker is the founder of Karma Studios and continues to work internationally across recording, mentoring, and creative development.
Lectures at Ars Pianistica
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“Making it in the Music Business 2026” is a straight-talk roadmap for ambitious pianists who want real-world results. Chris Craker will define what “success” actually looks like now, in the current music industry: portfolio careers that mix headline recitals with residencies, festivals, collaborations, commissions, teaching, and digital audience building. He will show how to price, pitch and programme intelligently. Expect hard metrics and practical tactics on repertoire strategy and differentiation, winning over presenters and agents, crafting your own brand that doesn’t feel like 'a brand', converting listeners into superfans, negotiating fees and terms, building a sustainable touring calendar, and protecting your stamina and sanity so that you can perform at your best. You’ll leave with a clear plan for the next 12-24 months, a modern press kit blueprint, and a method to turn every appearance, on stage or online, into compounding momentum.
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“Recording, Marketing and Distribution” is the concert pianist’s end-to-end playbook for the current recorded-music landscape: how to make world-class records efficiently and actually get them heard. Chris Craker will cover repertoire selection that serves both art and algorithms, producer and piano choices, session workflow, editing and mastering standards (including Atmos/Apple Classical readiness), airtight metadata and explain everything you need to know about rights (Mechanical/PPL/PRS) and release architecture from singles to cycles. On the marketing side you’ll get a content system that doesn’t hijack your practice time, pre-save and premiere strategy, learn how editorial and algorithmic playlists really work, YouTube/Shorts and socials that convert, direct-to-fan revenue, analytics you should actually watch, and a 90-day launch calendar you can reuse. The goal is simple: how to make and market recordings that sound exceptional, are legally clean, market-ready, and monetise across streaming, sync, and catalogue for the years ahead.