Samuel Sanders is widely regarded as one of the most respected collaborative pianists of the twentieth century. He was born with a congenital heart condition that required him to undergo surgery at the age of nine. He studied at Hunter College and at the Juilliard School under Sergius Kagen and Irwin Freundlich. Sanders was famous for the loyalty of his collaborators. He accompanied violinist Itzhak Perlman from 1966 until 1999, during which time the duo recorded a dozen recordings, two of which were awarded Grammys. He also performed with Pinchas Zukerman, Jaime Laredo, Paula Robison, Robert White, Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Mstislav Rostropovich, Hermann Baumann, Jacqueline Du Pré, Leonard Rose, Kyung-Wha Chung, Eugenia Zukerman, Jessye Norman, and Chilean cellist Andres Diaz, with whom he formed the Diaz-Sanders Duo. Sanders was the founder and artistic director of the Cape and Islands Chamber Music Festival in Cape Cod, MA. He performed with numerous string quartets, including the Lark, Colorado, Fine Arts, Borromeo, and Juilliard. He appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at major American festivals, including Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Marlboro, Ravinia, Saratoga, Spoleto (U.S. and Italy), and Wolf Trap. Sanders received an honorary award at the 1966 Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow and performed numerous times at the White House for five different presidents. He received honorary doctorates from Lehman College and the St. Louis Conservatory, and taught for more than three decades at the Juilliard School, where he helped found a degree program for collaborative pianists.