Henry Palkes, (St. Louis MO) has enjoyed a professional career spanning over forty years as a pianist, music director, vocal coach, educator and composer. A graduate of The Juilliard School, and Deutsche Akademischer Austauchdienst grant scholar, he made his NYC solo piano recital debut at Lincoln Center, performing numerous times at Carnegie Hall both in recital and as an affiliate member of the SLSO. In addition to a thirty year tenure at Washington University serving as vocal coach, music director, and lecturer, he has been awarded two Kevin Kline awards for his work as music director for The Rep, and is the Composer In Residence for the Tennessee Williams Festival of St. Louis, producing scores for “Stairs to the Roof”, Streetcar Named Desire” ( St. Louis Theatre Circle Award ), and “Suddenly Last Summer” Henry’s passion for multi-disciplinary artistic input was rewarded in 2018 when he was invited by the Gershwin Trust to assume the position of pianist and keyboardist for the First National Tour of Christopher Wheeldon’s “An American In Paris”. Eighty-six weeks and 649 consecutive performances later Henry was introduced to Kirven and Antonio Douthit -Boyd, who had just taken over Artistic Direction of Dance at COCA, and offered him position as Ballet Pianist. Following an invitation in 2022 from Kirven as newly named Artistic Director of Big Muddy, “Mr. Henry” was thrilled to join as their Company Pianist.