Anthony Hernandez

Short biography—

Anthony Hernandez is a collaborative pianist, organist, composer, and teacher who earned his Bachelor of Music in composition from the University of Missouri in 2009. He subsequently enjoyed regular on-staff collaborative pianist positions for Stephens College of the Performing Arts and Columbia College of Missouri and served in various positions on- and backstage for over twenty musical productions. Relocating in 2018, he moved to Los Angeles, where he freelanced his craft throughout Southern California. Hernandez received his Master’s Degree in collaborative piano at the MU School of Music under the guidance of Dr. Peter Miyamoto in May 2023. He currently works as a faculty accompanist at AMDA in Los Angeles, CA.

Longer, more detailed biography—

Anthony Hernandez (b. 1987) is a collaborative pianist, organist, composer, and teacher who earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. During his undergrad years, he studied composition with Dr. W. Thomas McKenney, earning a Bachelor of Music in Music Composition in 2009. He has worked as music director, rehearsal accompanist, assistant music director, and/or pit keyboardist for over twenty musical productions with numerous production companies. He has performed extensively as a collaborative and solo pianist throughout Missouri, the Midwest, Southern California, South America, and in Italy. As a composer, he was commissioned by and premiered orchestral works with the Columbia Civic Orchestra and the 9th Street Philharmonic Orchestra. Hernandez was a regular on-staff collaborative pianist for Stephens College of the Performing Arts and Columbia College of Missouri. He served as pianist and organist at First Church of Christ, Scientist of Columbia from 2012 to 2018, and at Missouri United Methodist Church from 2008 to 2018.

In the summer of 2018, Hernandez moved to Los Angeles, CA, where he was a piano and beginning violin instructor at Sunset Learning Studio in Manhattan Beach. He provided service music for the Twentieth Church of Christ, Scientist in Venice on Sunday mornings was a piano accompanist for the Culver City Middle School choirs, and was a regular ballet pianist at the Pasadena Dance Theatre. He occasionally filled in as ballet accompanist at California Institute for the Arts and worked briefly as accompanist for the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District's John Glenn High School and Nettie L. Waite Middle School choirs, as well as sang Tenor 2 in the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles.

Having returned to his alma mater and studying piano with Dr. Peter Miyamoto, Mr. Hernandez pursued and recently completed his graduate studies from Mizzou with a Master’s Degree in Collaborative Piano in May 2023. While a resident of Columbia, MO again, Mr. Hernandez provided piano accompaniment for all-level ballet classes at the Columbia Performing Arts Center, returning after playing for their summer intensive programs from 2015 to 2018. In the same month and for his last performances as a graduate student, he toured South America, as one of the two pianists for Mizzou's New Music Ensemble, specifically to Bogota, Colombia; Cordoba, Argentina; Bariloche, Argentina; and Buenos Aires, Argentina; presenting and premiering contemporary classical compositions of Latin American composer's. In July 2023, he participated in the Orfeo Music Festival in Vipiteno, Italy, where he received piano and composition guidance with Faina Lushtak.

Since October of 2023, Mr. Hernandez has worked as a faculty accompanist at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, College for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles, CA, playing for ballet classes and musical theatre classes. And not only at AMDA, but he plays for musical theatre dance classes at Loyola Marymount University in LA as well. Throughout his career and onward, he will strive to continue growing as a pianist, collaborator, educator, composer, and musician.