Barbara Nissman: World Renown Classical Pianist; Greenbrier County, WV resident; Member of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame to perform in Fairmont.
March 23, 2025, – 3pm – St Peter The Fisherman Catholic Church, 407 Jackson St., Fairmont, WV.
Tickets are 12$. Senior tickets $8. Cash, check, credit card. Pay at the door.
When Barbara Nissman was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2023. She told the crowd at the WV Cultural Center how proud she was of this distinction given to her by her adoptive state. She said, “I am truly a ‘West Virginian By Choice’. I have been truly blessed to live in West Virginia.”
Originally from Pennsylvania, Nissman has now called Greenbrier County, and Lewisburg, WV home for over 35 years.
She is one of the few pianists continuing in the grand bravura tradition of the Romantic approach to the piano. Nissman’s recordings of Prokofiev and Bartok are considered “definitive”; and she has garnered praise for her series of recordings of 19th century composers – Beethoven, Chopin, and Liszt.
Her international career was personally launched by conductor and violinist Eugene Ormandy. She has performed with the leading orchestras of Europe and America including the London Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, the Munich Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony, among others.
Awards & Accomplishments.
The state of West Virginia is proud and grateful that such a musical artists, who could have lived anywhere, chose West Virginia as her home in the 1980’s. She has also become a powerful advocate for the arts in West Virginia. She has received the following awards.
In 2003, Nissman was one of 23 pianists profiled as a “Steinway Master/Legend” in the Steinway 150th anniversary publication. She is in the Steinway “Hall of Legends” She has two Steinways in her home.
In 2008, Nissman was a recipient of the Governor’s Arts Award from the State of West Virginia, for “Distinguished Service to the Arts”.
In 2016, Barbara was honored with the State of West Virginia, Division of Culture and History with its “Order of the Arts and Historical Letters, as well as its “Excellence in Support of the Arts” award.
In 2020 she received the Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts from the State of West Virginia.
In 2023 she became a member of the WV Music Hall of Fame.
And in 2024, Barbara Nissam was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from West Virginia University.
Born & Bred will run a full “Heritage & Legacy” piece on Barbara Nissman later this year.
Note: Barbara Nissman, a designated Steinway Master, will be performing on a Steinway piano.
