Gladys Celeste is a familiar face in the ballet world with a career spanning over 40 years as rehearsal pianist and performance soloist at American Ballet Theatre, Feld Ballet, Cleveland Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem and Ohio Ballet. With these companies she has performed piano concertos by Prokoviev, Shostakovich , Mendelsohn and piano solos by Debussy, Brahms and Strauss at New York's Metropolitan House as well as theatres throughout the United States as well as some famed International theaters, like the Paris Opera House and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

Ms. Celeste has enjoyed a career for more than forty years at American Ballet Theater, longer than most of the company's dancers. She has worked with most of the elite dancers including Rudolf Nureyev, Carla Fracci, Cynthia Gregory, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gelsey Kirkland and Julio Bocca. She is also associated with the most notable choreographers of the 20th Century among them, Jerome Robbins, Agnes DeMille, Eliot Feld, Mark Morris.

Her career has been sprinkled with association with ballet teachers in New York City and in seminars around the country. Some may be familiar with her work with Robert Denvers, Melissa Hayden, Jurgen Schneider, Wilhelm Burmann, and Irina Kolpakova.

Her past recordings are used in ballet schools all over the country.

Ms. Celeste was born in the Philippines. She studied music there and completed her studies at Mannes School of Music. She is married to businessman, Manuel Mercader and they have two children.