Edmund Battersby was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1949. Considered a musical prodigy at a young age, he received his first piano at age 5, began participating in piano competitions, and winning awards shortly thereafter. After some convincing by his teacher and mentor, Barbara Holquist, Battersby attended and graduated with his Bachelors and Masters from the Julliard Conservatory in New York City. Upon graduation, he began teaching at Montclair State College in New Jersey while also focusing on a career as an internationally renowned concert pianist, orchestral soloist, and chamber musician. He remained at Montclair until 1996 when he took a teaching position as professor of piano at Indiana University in the Jacobs School of Music, where he remained until his death in 2016. He also taught masterclasses at prestigious institutions such as the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, Hochschule fur Musik in Leipzig, Princeton, Rutgers, and Duke Universities. Battersby married Lucy Guerlac in 1975; the couple had two children and separated in 1995. In 2010, he married Christian Claessens. Battersby passed away March 25, 2016.