List of people with absolute pitch

This is a list of notable people with absolute pitch, or "perfect pitch".

Note for pre-19th century composers

Owing to uncertainty in the historical record, it is often impossible to determine whether composers and musicians of the past had absolute pitch. Since absolute pitch is rare in European musical culture,^[1] claims that any particular musician possessed it are difficult to evaluate. Among composers of the Baroque and Classical eras, evidence is available only for Mozart, who is documented to have demonstrated the ability at age 7.^[1] Experts have only surmised that Beethoven had it, as indicated from some excerpts from his letters. By the 19th century, it became more common for the presence of absolute pitch to be recorded, such as in the case of Camille Saint-Saëns and John Philip Sousa.

List

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Mariah Carey

Kirsten Flagstad

Whitney Houston

Michael Jackson

Persons with absolute pitch

Name	Year of birth	Year of death	Description
Bill Bailey[2]	1965	(living)	British comedian, musician and actor
Ludwig van Beethoven[3]	1770	1827	German composer and pianist
Joshua Bell[4]	1967	(living)	American violinist and conductor
Nikolai Bernstein[5]	1896	1966	Russian scientist
Mariah Carey[3][6][7]	1969	(living)	American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer
Ray Charles[4]	1930	2004	American musician
Frédéric Chopin[3]	1810	1849	Polish composer and pianist
Jacob Collier[8][9]	1994	(living)	English singer, composer and producer
Celine Dion[10]	1968	(living)	Canadian singer
Ella Fitzgerald[11]	1917	1996	American jazz singer
Kirsten Flagstad[12]	1895	1962	Norwegian opera singer
David Foster[13]	1949	(living)	Canadian musician, producer
Charly García[14][15]	1951	(living)	Argentine singer-songwriter, musician and record producer
Glenn Gould[16]	1932	1982	Canadian classical pianist
Jascha Heifetz[17]	1901	1987	Russian-American violinist
Whitney Houston[18]	1963	2012	American singer and actress
Michael Jackson[3]	1958	2009	American singer, songwriter and dancer
James P. Johnson[19]	1894	1955	American pianist and composer
Scott Joplin[20]	1868	1917	American composer and pianist
Carole King[21]	1942	(living)	American singer, songwriter, and musician
Dimash Kudaibergen[22]	1994	(living)	Kazakh singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist
Gary Moore[23]	1952	2011	Northern Irish musician
W. A. Mozart[24][3]	1756	1791	Austrian composer
Frederick Ouseley[25]	1825	1889	English musician, professor
Derek Paravicini[26]	1979	(living)	British pianist, musical savant
Itzhak Perlman[4]	1945	(living)	Israeli-American violinist
Lucky Peterson[27]	1964	2020	American musician
Oscar Peterson[28]	1925	2007	Canadian jazz pianist
Charlie Puth[29][30]	1991	(living)	American singer, songwriter, and record producer
Sviatoslav Richter[4]	1915	1997	Russian classical pianist
Arthur Rubinstein[4]	1887	1982	Polish-American pianist
Jordan Rudess[31]	1956	(living)	American keyboardist for Dream Theater
Lea Salonga[32][33]	1971	(living)	Filipina singer, actress, producer, and columnist
Josef Zawinul[34]	1932	2007	Austrian musician, composer
Sheryn Regis[35][36]	1979	(living)	Filipina singer, actress, host
Artur Schnabel[37]	1882	1951	Austrian-American classical pianist
James Scott[38]	1885	1938	American ragtime composer
Art Tatum[4]	1909	1956	American jazz pianist
Arturo Toscanini[4]	1867	1957	Italian conductor
Brian Wilson[39]	1942	2025	American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and co-founder of the Beach Boys
Stevie Wonder[4]	1950	(living)	American musician
Yo-Yo Ma[40]	1955	(living)	American cellist