Patrick Rucker studied piano performance at Texas Christian University, The Juilliard School and the Franz Liszt Academy of Music under Lili Kraus, Ferenc Rados, Kurt Appelbaum and Nina Svetlanova. He made his Carnegie Recital Hall début in 1980. At the Smithsonian Institution, he was co-curator of the exhibition Piano 300, celebrating the tercentennial of the piano’s invention. He has written for both popular and scholarly journals, as well as television programmes broadcast on PBS. In 2001 he was honoured with the Music for Life Award by the National Association of Music Merchants for his services to American music. He lives in Washington, DC.