A pianist, a musican who plays a piano, can perform as a soloist, with an ensemble, an orchestra, or as an accompanist with singers or solo instrumentalists. Genres of music that use the piano are classical, jazz, and popular.
Among notable virituosos of the keyboard are many composers due the suitability of the instrument for composition.
The piano, at first affordable by only royalty and the very wealthy, became the common musical instrument in both public spaces and private homes of the expanding middle class. With the piano available in many parlors, the women of the family could, and were expected to become, accomplished pianists.
Here is a video composed of clips of the piano scene from the 1940, 1995 and 2005 versions of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
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