Khalid McGhee

Khalid McGhee, an American pianist and collaborator, earned a Bachelor of Music with distinction in piano performance from Northern Arizona University’s Kitt School of Music, where he studied primarily with Frank Scott and Rita Borden. He continued his piano studies at the Institut für Musik of Hochschule Osnabrück under the guidance of Tatiana Liakh, as a two-time recipient of the Deutschlandstipendium (German national scholarship).

Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, his formative years were shaped by rigorous training in both piano and voice across multiple genres. He participated in programs such as El Sistema’s Orchestrating Diversity and the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’s Bayer Fund Artists-In-Training Program for high school singers. He also trained in gospel, musical theatre, and jazz, further strengthening his wide-ranging musical abilities from an early age.

Khalid’s versatility spans solo piano, chamber music, vocal accompaniment, vocal coaching, and musical direction. He has performed internationally at festivals including the Siena Summer Music Festival, Festival Hidalgo, Kammermusikfestival Hagen, and Labor Europa, in addition to serving for three years as a pianist for the summer opera program Music in the Marche in Mondavio, Italy.

Fluent in five languages, he is a passionate linguist as well as a dedicated educator. He was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in Munich, Germany, where he explored the use of music as a tool to enhance language learning and social integration for students from migrant backgrounds.

Khalid currently resides in Paris, where he is an artist-in-residence and a Harriet Hale Woolley Scholar at the Fondation des États-Unis for the 2023–2024 academic year. He will pursue a Diplôme Supérieur in Vocal Coaching (Direction de Chant) at the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot, under the guidance of Irene Kudela.