In a 1965 interview with Abram Chasins Horowitz said "The only pianists I call my ex-pupils are Byon Janis, Ronald Turini, and Gary Graffman. If someone else claims, it's not true. I had some others who played for me, but I stopped work with them because they did not progress. The did not want to follow my advice, or couldn't." These three pupils will be discussed here.

Byron Janis

Gary Graffman began formal piano studies at The Curtis Institute of Music in 1936 at the age of seven, when he was accepted as a piano student of Isabelle Vengerova. He graduated in 1946 and shortly thereafter made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. He continued his studies with Vladimir Horowitz and, at the Marlboro Music Festival, with Rudolf Serkin. At age 20, Mr. Graffman won the Leventritt Award, which launched his international concert career. In 1979, an injury to his right hand limited his concertizing to repertoire for the left hand alone. Since then, seven left-hand works have been commissioned for him, and he has an active concert career with major orchestras and chamber ensembles around the world. Mr. Graffman joined the Curtis piano faculty in 1980 and, from 1985 through May 2006, served as director of Curtis.

Canadian pianist Ronald Turini was the winner of a gold medal (second prize) at the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Competition, 1960 and top prizes in the Busoni Competition in Italy, 1958 and the Geneva International Competition in Switzerland, 1958. Among his teachers were Isabelle Vengerova and Olga Stroumillo and he was privileged to be one of the few students of the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz.