For the past 16 seasons, she has created a large and enthusiastic following for her sold-out series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, "Concerts with Commentary."  She has won high praise for her masterful playing and discussions of Brahms, Mendelssohn, Robert and Clara Schumann, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. Her most recent series is on the music of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Shostakovich, in a three-concert series titled "The Russian Spirit" with special guests Courtenay Budd, soprano and the St. Petersburg String Quartet.

    Her video, "Live from the Metropolitan Museum", celebrates her unique Rachmaninoff performances. Her latest recording is a 2-CD set of the complete Brahms Piano Quartets with the Shanghai Quartet, recorded on the Arabesque Label.  Her recent CD, recorded on an authentic 1893 Bechstein Piano from the Metropolitan Museum's instrument collection is entitled "Such Good Friends", and highlights the personal relationships between Brahms, Mendelssohn, and the Schumanns. 

    Ruth Laredo appeared in the Woody Allen film, "Small Time Crooks", which stars Hugh Grant.  In the scene, Hugh Grant tries to impress Tracy Ullman by taking her to an important N.Y. Concert, a piano recital in which Ruth Laredo plays music of Rachmaninoff.

    Noted for her strong commitment to chamber music, Ms. Laredo frequently collaborates with the Tokyo String Quartet, and was a founding member of the Music from Marlboro concerts.  She has appeared with the Guarneri Quartet and the Tokyo Quartet in Lincoln Center's Great Performers series, as well as with the Vermeer, Shanghai, Emerson, Muir and St. Lawrence Quartets.  

    In 1996, she teamed up with jazz greats Marian McPartland and Dick Hyman for a wonderfully inventive evening called "Three Piano Classical / Jazz Crossover" which made its debut at the 92nd St. Y's famed "Jazz in July" series.  This combination has become a consistent hit around the country ever since that night.

    A three-time Grammy award nominee, Ruth Laredo has been widely praised for her recordings.  She was the first pianist ever to record Rachmaninoff's complete solo works for CBS Masterworks, which earned her a "Best Keyboard Artist" award from Record World magazine, and a Grammy nomination.  These ground-breaking recordings have been re-issued on five CD's by SONY Classical.  Her historic Scriabin recordings - the first of the complete sonatas, have been re-issued on two CD's by Nonesuch.  She recently recorded Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" and Rachmaninoff's Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos with her colleague, James Tocco, on the Gasparo label.  Her all-Barber recording on Nonesuch earned her another Grammy nomination.  This season, she recorded Ned Rorem's "Day Music" suite with violinist Philip Setzer for Newport Classics.

    She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress and the White House, and with such prestigious orchestras as the N.Y. Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, and the Detroit Symphony.  She has played with the leading chamber orchestras, including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's.

   Ms. Laredo made a highly successful tour of the U.S. as soloist with the Warsaw Philharmonic, culminating in a performance of the Rachmaninoff 1st Concerto at Carnegie Hall.  Prior to the tour, she appeared with the orchestra in Warsaw for a United Nations Day concert which was televised throughout Europe.

    Her extensive tour of Russia and Ukraine, highlighted by concerts in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Odessa, formed part of an extraordinary television profile about her on "CBS Sunday Morning".

    In demand as an eloquent and authoritative commentator on the arts and piano literature, she has been a regular columnist for Piano Today magazine, a frequent guest critic on WQXR's long-running "First Hearing", and a Special Arts Correspondent for National Public Radio's "Morning Edition", and she has hosted "Onstage with Young Concert Artists" on WQXR for the past three years.

    Ruth Laredo's life and career have made her a role model for women in the arts.  Nominated for the "Woman of the Year" award by Ladies Home Journal, she was a guest speaker at the Harvard/Radcliffe Women's Leadership Conference at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.  She was recently chosen to give the Commencement Day Address at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts.

   "The Ruth Laredo Becoming A Musician Book", a guide for aspiring pianists drawn from Ms. Laredo's own experiences is available in bookstores around the country. (Publisher: European American Music Corporation).  Her work as editor of the complete Rachmaninoff Preludes for Piano, published by C.F. Peters International, is available worldwide.

    Born in Detroit, and a longtime resident of New York City, Ruth Laredo studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Rudolf Serkin, made her N.Y. Philharmonic debut with Pierre Boulez, and her Carnegie Hall orchestral debut with Leopold Stokowski and the American Symphony.  Her N.Y. Recital debut was presented by Young Concert Artists.

    She is the proud mother of Jennifer Laredo, who is married and lives with her husband, the cellist Paul Watkins, in London, England.