Leah Claiborne, D.M.A. promotes diversity in the arts by championing piano music by Black composers in her performances, research, and teaching. Dr. Claiborne was recently named the inaugural winner of the Stecher and Horowitz Power of Innovation Award through Music Teacher National Association for her artistic excellence, pedagogical leadership, nurturing spirit, and community service. This prize is given to a teaching artist under the age of 36 who is making significant impact in the field of music. This is the largest monetary award ever given to an individual in the or-ganization. She was named Yamaha’s 2023 40 under 40 Top Music Educators of Amer-ica. In the same year, she was awarded University of Michigan’s Alumni Artist Award which is bestowed on a graduate who has made significant contributions to their field. In 2022 she established the first Representation and Advocacy column (formerly Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) for American Music Teacher where she regularly pub-lishes articles providing resources and support to music educators across the country. In the same year her article, “What If’s: Intentional Inclusion of Black Composers in Mu-sic Education” was the featured article of the February/ March Issue. Claiborne serves as Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Frances Clark Center and serves as the co-chair of the DEI track for the National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy. In this role, she has published two online courses titled, Unsung Heroes: 20 Pieces by Black Composers To Use In Your Studio Now and Piano Peda-gogy through the lens of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She is also a regular invited writer for Piano Magazine. She is highly in demand as a guest lecturer for master classes, seminars, and recitals visiting over 30 states within the past three years. She is founder of Ebony Music Inc, a non profit organization dedicated to pro-moting Black classical pianists and piano music by Black composers. Ebony Music Inc. sponsors the Ebony Prize for the best performance of a piece of music written by a Black composer at the national level for Music Teacher National Association’s Piano Competition. In 2024, Ebony Music was awarded the Sphinx Venture fund to record and promote piano music by Black composers. Dr. Claiborne most recently has published a two volume book titled “Expanding The Repertoire: Music of Black Composers” by Hal Leonard, one of the largest music publishing companies in the world. She also has upcoming publications with Cam-bridge University Press and Oxford University Press. Dr. Claiborne received her undergraduate degree from Manhattan School of Mu-sic where she received the Josephine Whitmore graduation award. She received her Masters of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees at the University of Michigan. She was the first pianist to be awarded the Rackham Predoc fellowship, the most pres-tigious fellowship awarded by the graduate school. Dr. Claiborne received early promo-tion with tenure at the University of the District of Columbia where she serves as coor-dinator of keyboard studies and teaches History of African American Music. Leah is a Yamaha Artist.