The Washington Post has written, "Thank heaven for Ann Schein…what a relief it is to hear a pianist who, with no fuss, simply reaches right into the heart of whatever she is playing - and creates music so powerful you cannot tear yourself away."

From her first recordings for Kapp Records and her highly acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut as an artist on the Sol Hurok roster, Ann Schein's amazing career has earned her praise in major American and European cities, and she has had performances on every continent and in cities spanning over 50 countries. 

In 1963, she was invited to perform at the White House during the Kennedy administration and has toured for several seasons with famed opera star, Jessye Norman. During the 1980-81 season in New York, Ann Schein extended the legacy of her teachers, Mieczyslaw Munz, Arthur Rubinstein, and Dame Myra Hess, performing 6 concerts of the Chopin repertoire in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, to sold-out houses and outstanding reviews, the first Chopin cycle presented in New York since the 1940's. She has received many distinguished honors for her Chopin performances. During the bicentennial of Chopin's birth in 2010 in a special survey of outstanding Chopin recorded performances entitled, "A Century of Romantic Music", she was cited by the renowned Gregor Benko and Ward Marston who wrote of her, "Ann Schein was trained in her native United States where she studied with both Mieczyslaw Munz and Arthur Rubinstein. Her first recordings, made when she was 18 and 19, established her as one of the premiere Chopin pianists of our time."

She has had a distinguished teaching career and was a member of the piano faculty at Peabody Conservatory from 1980-2001. Since 1984 she has been an Artist-Faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival and School. In 2008-09, she was a Visiting Piano Faculty member of the Indiana University Music school, and during the 2015-16 season she served as a Visiting Professor at the Eastman School of Music. In 2012, Peabody Conservatory honored her with a Distinguished Alumni Award, and she was invited to join the piano faculty at the Mannes School in 2017.

She and her husband, Earl Carlyss, second violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet for 21 years, have performed countless chamber music concerts both as a Duo and in collaboration with many distinguished colleagues. They are proud parents of two daughters, Linnea and Pauline, and two granddaughters, Olivia and Maggie.