Pianist Edward Bak enjoys an active career as a vocal coach and collaborative pianist. The international press has hailed him as “a pianist who knows how to combine fury and restraint, elegance and lyrical effusion” and  praised him for playing of “fire, excitement, and a real sense of grandeur,” as well as being a collaborator of “great sensitivity and refinement.” 

He served as assistant musical staff to Seiji Ozawa at the Tanglewood Music Center and has performed in concert with such leading artists as Carol Wincenc, Richard Stoltzman, Vitya Vronsky, Anthony Dean Griffey, and Giuseppe Filianoti. He has been chosen as recital partner by artists from The Cleveland Orchestra, The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, The Montreal Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. Bak has performed in such venues as the Festival Lanaudière, Severance Hall, The Phillips Collection, Kolarac Hall, The Monnaie, and the National Recital Hall in Taipei.

Bak’s involvement with the opera has included appointments as coach/accompanist with The Cleveland Lyric Opera, Dayton Opera, Opera Columbus, and the Nevada Opera. He was music director for the Wendy Taucher Dance Opera Theater for performances in Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, and Key West. He served as Artistic Administrator for Opera Project Columbus for whom he initiated the VIVA online opera academy and the video series celebrating works by African-American composers, “I, too, sing America.” Outside of the USA Bak was appointed principal coach for a production at the National Theater in Taipei, and he lectured and presented a master class at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

Edward has worked with the Martina Arroyo Foundation in New York City, The American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria and The Sankt Goar International Music Festival Academy in Germany, as well as the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices.

Bak is currently a professor at The Ohio State University School of Music. 

Previous teaching appointments include the Longy School, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and The Peabody Institute.