BYRON SCHENKMAN is a Queer Jewish keyboard player and scholar with a background in Historical Performance and a passion for connecting people through music. In addition to performing live on piano, harpsichord, and fortepiano, Byron can be heard on more than forty CDs, including recordings on historical instruments from the National Music Museum, Vermillion, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. They can also be heard in numerous online performances with Byron Schenkman & Friends and with the Portland Baroque Orchestra for which they served as Artistic Advisor for the 2021/2022 season. A founding director of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Byron received the Erwin Bodky Award from the Cambridge Society for Early Music “for outstanding achievement in the field of early music” and was voted “Best Classical Instrumentalist” by the readers of Seattle Weekly. Their playing has been described in The New York Times as “sparkling,” “elegant,” and “insightful.” In recent seasons Byron has been a featured artist at the Boston Early Music Festival and the Vancouver Bach Festival, and has premiered new works by Damien Geter and Jonathan Woody. Byron is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and received a master’s degree with honors in performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.