If you could collaborate with any musician, alive or dead, who would it be and why?

Bach, of course... so I could have lessons with the greatest musical genius who ever lived (and no doubt a similarly great teacher), who would (if I could ever stand the pace and meet his demands) teach me not just to play the clavier, but to be a musician.

Henryk Szeryng arguably the greatest violinist of all time.  He was more popular outside the united states but his playing was other worldy.  I understand he was perhaps not the easiest personality to warm up to, but his understanding of technique and interpretation was a phenomenon.  Just listen to his movement 3 of the brahms concerto on youtube for proof

Frederic Chopin definitely- he could teach me his style of playing

It would have been Debussy. Due to Suite bergamasque, Rêverie and Claire de Lune. The sound produced is so original compare to his predecessors. Besides he inspired many contemporary musicians like Bill Evans in Jazz even Dr Dre in hip hop. I admire all of them but Debussy talked to me more.

Chopin more than anyone with Brahms coming in right after. Such extraordinary musicians. It would have been amazing just to have been in the same room soaking up anything they had to impart. There are others of course, I would also have been very interested to collaborate with other great musicians like Jessye Norman, Vladimir Horowitz, Nina Simone, Samson François, Francis Poulenc, Pierre Bernac, Sergej Larin, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Fritz Wunderlich.

My dream date would be hearing Chopin play The Well-Tempered Clavier.  Preferably both books.  

Hands down, Rachmaninoff - absolute favorite composer, I would ask him about some voicings and get his particular nuances for those of us with smaller hands. While in music school I used to pray each night that I would wake up in the morning with his hands instead of mine... what a gift that man had, and what a grace that he shared it with us!

Albinoni: I believe he would appreciate my amateur status and give me insights to the music. 

Without hesitation, Yo Yo Ma.  I love the cello/piano repertoire, having explored most of it as a collaborative pianist at University (decades ago).  The Debussy Cello Sonata is my favorite to play.  I haven't seen a recording by Yo Yo Ma for this piece but to collaborate with him on it would be a dream!  I enjoy his approach to music, his willingness (and success) to explore outside his classical training.  It would be amazing to experience any of the cello/piano repertoire with Yo Yo Ma.  Great question, Dominic!  Thanks for the dream! 

i am greedy, all of them.

Richard Carpenter of the Carpenters, a popular duo in the 1970’s.  (Karen Carpenter was the lead vocalist for the duo).

Richard is a very fine pianist, (he did study piano at Yale in his early years) composer, arranger and conductor who has an amazing ear for music.  Although he did say Bacharach, Beatles and Beach Boys are the 3 B’s who influenced him, he

was is fan of Bach and Tchaikovsky.  You can clearly hear the baroque period influence in his own compositions and arrangements on album cuts as well as jazz influences.

He certainly influenced me to expand my knowledge of music and the desire to play - in the broad sense of the word - classical music in my piano studies. I am certainly no where near where I would need to be to collaborate but I can only dream what it would be like to meet and talk to him about his contribution to music.