I think I am the classical pianist with the longest presence on YouTube

[jj_townley]

I could be wrong but checking around I cannot find anybody who's been around longer than me. I posted my first piano video June 2006. YouTube started in February 2005. I recall at one point I had more piano videos than any other pianist I could find. Valentina Lisitsa arrived a year later with her phenomenal Chopin Etudes and knocked me into the next county. Is anybody on PianoStreet aware of any classical pianists who videos on YouTube register 20 years? Here's one of my early ones. I deleted a bunch of them over the years. I currently have only 4. And I wasn't a class pianist by any means. I was working with an old nerve injury to my RH forefinger which was messing up my RH badly after 20 years away from the piano.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Jack Gibbons was quite close, with his first video ("Jack Gibbons plays Authentic Gershwin") being released on December 7th of 2007.

As was Barbaro Mr., who uploaded a video of Alkan's Allegro Barbaro on August 23 of 2008.

You already mentioned Lisitsa (April 25, 2007, beating Gibbons by about eight months).
This guy posted a bad video of himself playing Chopin 10/12 about 1.5 months after you posted your own 10/12 video (August 7, 2006):

Vincenzo Maltempo was also pre-2010 (first video on March 24 of 2009):

"Tompilk" uploaded a video of MAH in early 2007:

Melanie Peoska uploaded a video of themself playing Bach P&F in G Major in August of 2008:

I think this might be the first synthesia piano video on Youtube (2011):

Not pre-2010, but apparently this video game streamer uploaded a video of himself playing Chopin 28/20 in February of 2010, so maybe they were the first person to upload a piano video and then pivot to something else entirely (they apparently uploaded a Hollow Knight speedrun eight years ago, a few months after the game came out)?

So it would seem that your account is the oldest, but considering that there have been multiple multi-year gaps between videos, I feel like the longest-running consistent presence on the platform goes to Jack Gibbons (or is about to). Both Lisitsa and Gibbons have only had one multi-year-long gap (Lisitsa between her Beethoven Sonata no. 25 and her "A small teaser for things to come soon" videos, and Gibbons between his first and second videos). Lisitsa's last piano-related upload was eight months ago, while Gibbons' was just over one month ago. That means that the difference between their current start and end times is only 11 days. So, assuming Gibbons uploads something piano-related in a few days or weeks (which he probably will), Gibbons will have taken the lead.

Also, I suspect that there are plenty of people who came before you, but that all of their videos/channels are now deleted.
Well, that was a fun little thing to do, which is funny because this is basically a "look at me" topic.



Edit: found someone who actually beat you to it. "DaComme" uploaded a horrible Chopin 25/12 video on April 3, 2006, about 2.5 months before you:

This guy also beat you by about three days:

And everything on the "amazing piano videos on YouTube" thread here up until reply #86 is also fair game: https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=16966.0
...which also confirms my suspicion that most videos from the early days of YouTube are now lost to time.

Also, found a video uploaded by TheVirtuosoPianist from May of 2006:

Decided to check their channel because I remembered that they uploaded my favorite performance (Cziffra playing Liszt - S. 219 Grand Galop Chromatique) almost two decades ago.

Also found a few others who came close, including Nicolas Namoradze (November 8, 2009), HJ Lim (April 21, 2009), Pianoplayer002 (November 19, 2007), Beckmesser2 (November 2, 2007), Fans of Alicia de Larrocha (started by her daughter) (October 7, 2010), alainpeniche (October 20, 2009), Deutsche Grammophon (January 23, 2009), Shelest at the Piano (January 25, 2008), and thepolonaise (April 14, 2008).

[jj_townley]

Looks like Cambry beats me. How do you check the month? I can only see "19 years" but on my own "Content"  section I see the upload dates which are June of 2006.

Cambry appears to have stopped uploading 6 years ago. His website is also discontinued.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Looks like Cambry beats me. How do you check the month? I can only see "19 years" but on my own "Content"  section I see the upload dates which are June of 2006.

Click on the video description on Youtube, if you want to see the date that it was uploaded.

"DaComme" seems to have the earliest surviving video on the platform, BTW.
Emphasis on "surviving." Doubtless that there were older videos that have been lost to time or have been deleted by the channel that uploaded them (or the channel itself was deleted).

[jj_townley]

Got it. Thanks. Are there any pianists who are keeping their YouTube channel active and are still posting videos?

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Got it. Thanks. Are there any pianists who are keeping their YouTube channel active and are still posting videos?

Jack Gibbons very much is. Barbaro Mr. posts every once in a while. Maltempo just recently came back from a six-year break, but I don't know if that's going to stay the case or not. Nicolas Namoradze posts stuff very occasionally. Fans of Alicia de Larrocha (which is a channel started by her daughter) posts Alicia de Larrocha recordings/performances every now and then. Deutsche Grammophon posts live performances of various pianists pretty regularly.
I'm not familiar enough with the other ones I mentioned to know if they still post or not.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I posted my 16th anniversary video on 25th Apr 2022.

(Some of my older videos have been set to private because I no longer think they're very good, though I've retained a few for historical and sentimental reasons.)

[gasplamey]

Not pre-2010, but apparently this video game streamer uploaded a video of himself playing Chopin 28/20 in February of 2010, so maybe they were the first person to upload a piano video and then pivot to something else entirely (they apparently uploaded a Hollow Knight speedrun eight years ago, a few months after the game came out)?

Wait what. I literally started watching his content last month or something.
It must be a sign. /joking