Matthay Festival 2010
Columbus State University

Recitalists and Presenters



John Kenneth Adams

is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of South Carolina School of Music. He attended the University of Kansas City, Yale University, and the Royal Academy of Music, London. His teachers include Carl Friedberg, Bruce Simonds, Hilda Dederich and Frank Mannheimer. Professor Adams has performed at many Matthay Festivals, starting in 1966. His performance venues include Weill Recital Hall, the National Gallery, Wigmore Hall, London, and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. He enjoyed a long association with the United States Information Services, presenting over 150 concerts in South America, Europe, and the Far East. For many years he also presented radio series for the South Carolina Educational Network and gave presentations for the South Carolina Humanities Council. At USC he was awarded a Venture Fund grant to perform the complete piano music of Debussy in five recitals. He also documented the life of Debussy in three articles for the Piano Quarterly. Professor Adams was awarded a Certificate of Merit from Yale University in 2000,and received the Mungo Award for Distinguished Teaching from the University of South Carolina in 1998. On retirement, he created an endowment for French music at the Thomas Cooper Library, giving as the first gift one of only 250 copies of the first edition of “Monsieur Croche-antidilettante” by Claude Debussy. Since retiring in 2004, Adams has continued to perform and give masterclasses, notably at the Varna International Masterclass in Varna, Bulgaria, and for the European Music Teachers Association in Novi Sad, Serbia. He is a member of the Royal Over Seas League in London, and teaches each summer for the Southeastern Piano Festival in Columbia, South Carolina.


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Greg Anderson,

a former winner of the Clara Wells Scholarship Auditions, has performed in Carnegie Hall, soloed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, released several CDs, and toured in North America, Asia, and Europe. He has performed at major international venues, including Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo, Japan; the Banff Centre in Canada; the Holders Festival in Barbados; the Cliburn Concert Series in Fort Worth; the Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival in Salt Lake City; and Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall, and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall and Weill Recital Hall in New York City. He released his first solo album, On Wings of Song, in 2006 and is currently working on his second solo album, Bestiary. He also performs regularly with his piano-duo partner, Elizabeth Joy Roe; they are known worldwide for their revolutionary four-hand piano technique and joyous camaraderie. As a composer, Greg has had works premiered at the Rose Bowl, Alice Tully Hall, and the Grand National Theater in China, and he has filled in for John Williams on short notice. His compositions for The 5 Browns have appeared on the EMI, Sony/BMG, and E1 record labels. As an actor, Greg made his Broadway debut in 2005 playing the role of “Vernon Duke” at NYC’s Playwright Horizons. Greg received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance from The Juilliard School as a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar; he is currently a candidate for the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree at Yale University. His teachers have included Aiko Onishi and John Perry, and his interactive web site is www.andersonpiano.com.



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Brenda Brenner and Kenneth Huber

have performed as a duo since 1990, when they were both professors at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Brenner is now an Associate Professor of Music Education at Indiana University and Co-Assistant Director of the Indiana University String Academy.  She holds Bachelor’s degrees in violin performance and music education from Wichita State University, and her Master’s and Doctorate in Musical Arts are from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Sylvia Rosenberg, Donald Weilerstein, and the Cleveland Quartet.   As a member of the award-winning Augustine Quartet, she played concerts throughout the United States and was also a finalist and prize winner in several competitions, including the Banff International Quartet Competition, Concert Artists Guild, Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and Cleveland Competition, and has worked with the Cleveland, Tokyo, Juilliard, American and Emerson Quartets. Brenner is a sought-after clinician and frequently gives master classes for colleges and universities throughout the world.

Kenneth Huber is presently on the faculty of Carleton and he resides both in New York City and Minneapolis. He has performed extensively throughout the United States, is frequently heard on radio and television, and has collaborated with opera stars of the Metropolitan, New York City, and Vienna Operas. He has served on the faculties of Westminster Choir College, Augsburg College, and Virginia Intermont College, where he was also founder and Director of Celebrity Concerts. He has frequently presented lectures and recitals for the American Matthay Association and the Mannheimer Piano Festival, for which he was artistic director. He is often invited to adjudicate for national scholarship competitions and auditions, including the MTNA, the San Antonio International Keyboard Competition, and St. Paul's Schubert Club. He has also served two terms as panelist for the Virginia Commission for the Arts. He received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Indiana University where he studied with György Sebök. His study of the piano began at age four with his aunt, and continued with Shirley Shaffer of the Matthay School. He spent summers studying with the late Frank Mannheimer, and studied privately with Leon Fleisher from 1969 to 1973. In addition to his non-stop musical life, his hobbies include running, gourmet cooking, camping and hiking, the theater, and of course, travel.


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Thomas Gregg

earned a B.M. with honors in voice from Capital University, an M.M. in voice from the University of Michigan, and a D.M.A. in voice from The Ohio State University. He has studied voice with Ellen Faull, John McCollum and Eileen Davis, and was a fellow at the Kent/Blossom School (1987). He has performed oratorio solos with the Columbus, Memphis and Lake Charles Symphonies, as well as the Cincinnati Choral Society, Back Bay Chorale, Providence Singers, Harvard University Choir and Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium musicum. Gregg has also performed contemporary opera in New Orleans, Memphis and Columbus and historical opera in Boston and Washington, D.C. Gregg has given recitals at the Fontana Festival in Michigan as well as many guest recitals at southern U.S. colleges. His European debut was at the 1995 Franz Schubert Institute in Baden-bei-Wien, Austria. He has performed chamber music with the duo DoubleAction harpist Emily Laurance and with the Early American music ensemble Columbia's Musick. He has also been an avid supporter of early music, having performed in the Boston Early Music Festival, Early Interval, the PanHarmonium, the Texas Baroque Ensemble, the Orchestra of New Spain and Fort Worth Early Music. Gregg has done ensemble work with the Handel & Haydn Society, Emmanuel Music, Trinity Choir, Boston Secession, Boston Baroque, the King's Chapel, Cantari Singer (Columbus, OH) and the Washington Bach Consort. He is a former professor of the University of Mississippi. His recordings can be heard on Titanic, Dorian, Pro Organo record labels, and he has been broadcast on National Public Radio (NPR) stations in Ohio, Mississippi and Alabama. Gregg was a fellow at the Aston Magna Academies and Bach Aria Institutes and is a proud member of Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Mu Alpha, National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Early Music America and the Society for American Music.


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Donald Hageman

has taught privately and performed in the Dayton, Ohio, area for more than fifty years. He studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the University of Dayton, and the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. His piano studies were with Ada Clyde Gallagher, Beryl Rubinstein, Frances Bolton Kortheuer, and Madeline Bostian Rider, a pupil of Tobias Matthay. He served as a member of the piano faculty at Wright State University from 1976-83, and for seventeen years was Director of Concerts for the Dayton Art Institute. He is also the Founder/Director of the Soirées Musicales International Piano Series, now in its fortieth (and final) season. He is a past President and presently, Archivist, of the American Matthay Association, and since 1963, has appeared every year but one as a recitalist and/or lecturer at the annual Matthay Festivals held throughout the United States and in Canada. In 2004 he was awarded the organization's First Annual Distinguished Service Award. In 1999 he appeared as soloist with Dayton's Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra in performances of the Tchaikovsky G Major Concerto, and subsequently in performances of the Mozart Concerto, K. 467, and Chopin's Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brilliante. He also performed the Dohnanyi Variations on a Nursery Theme and Liszt's Totentanz, playing a 1913 Erard Concert Grand which he has restored.




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Marie Hasse

holds a Bachelor of Arts in Piano Performance from the University of Central Florida, where she studied with Gary Wolf. She is Head of Keyboard Studies at Polk Community College and she also teaches privately in the Winter Haven Area. She is currently the President of the Bach Festival of Central Florida, a past president of the Florida State Music Teachers Association, and she frequently adjudicates for FSMTA student events. As Southeastern Regional Junior Festivals Chairman, she is also active in the student events of the Florida Federation of Music Clubs. Ms. Hasse is presently serving as Secretary for the American Matthay Association for the second time and has frequently lectured at the AMA's annual festivals. She performs in chamber music recitals in the area and lectures on piano pedagogy. In recent years, she has worked extensively to publicize the contributions of Helen Parker Ford, a Matthay pupil who specialized in teaching his principles to younger children. Ms. Hasse is also the organist for First Presbyterian Church in Haines City.






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George Loring

is the current President of the American Matthay Association for Piano. He is Artist-in-Residence at Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire, and holds a Master of Music in Piano Performance with honors from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied under Jacob Maxin and Victor Rosenbaum. He also holds a B.A. cum laude (in music) from Harvard College. His other teachers include Albion Metcalf, Leonard Shure, Hungarian artist and teacher Dusi Mura, and Denise Lassimonne, the adopted daughter of Tobias Matthay. He performs frequently throughout New England as a soloist, collaborative artist and chamber musician, and has performed in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Hawaii, and on New Hampshire public radio and television. Mr. Loring has performed concerti by Beethoven, Mozart, and Saint-Saens with the Lakes Region Symphony Orchestra, the New Hampshire Philharmonic and the Jupiter Symphony of New York City. He has presented complete cycles of the Mozart and Brahms sonatas with violinist Roger Hall. He also appeared as pianist for the Monadnock Chorus at Carnegie Hall. A member of the Music Teachers National Association since 1982, Mr. Loring has twice been president of the New Hampshire Music Teachers Association. He is currently the Vice-president for Program of that organization. He is also a member and former board member of the New England Piano Teachers Association. He is frequently sought after as an adjudicator for state and regional competitions and festivals in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.




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Terry McRoberts

is Professor of Music at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, where he teaches private and class piano and related courses. He also serves as coordinator of keyboard studies and of concerts and recitals. He is President-Elect of the Tennessee Music Teachers Association, and he was the editor of the Tennessee Music Teacher for a number of years. He performs frequently as a soloist and a collaborative musician, and as a member of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra. He is organist at United Methodist Church in Jackson. He was a presenter at the International Conference of The College Music Society in Kyoto, Japan, and was keyboard soloist in a performance of Bach's Fifth Brandenburg Concerto with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra in November 2001.





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Mary Pendleton Hoffer

has performed as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral keyboardist, and accompanist in the United States, Mexico, and England. She made her London solo debut at the prestigious Wigmore Hall in 1984, and she has appeared as a soloist with the Phoenix Symphony, and the Amarillo and Lubbock Symphonies. For many years she served as Keyboardist for the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and Principal Keyboardist for the Sun Cities Symphony. She has also served as Keyboardist for The Florida Orchestra in Tampa. She is a member of many chamber ensembles, including the Bel Canto Players, and frequently performs with singers. Her summer festival appearances include the Sedona Chamber Music Festival, the New Hampshire Music Festival, and the Park City International Chamber Music Festival. She began to play the piano before she was three years old, studying with her father, Samuel Pendleton, a student of Tobias Matthay. At the age of five, she was the youngest performer ever to participate in the Berkeley (California) Bach Festival, and she later was a prize winner in the Chicago Young Artists Competition. She graduated as Salutatorian from Interlochen Arts Academy, and completed Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at Texas Tech University. She studied in England with Denise Lassimonne, Martino Tirimo and Gwenneth Pryor, completing graduate diplomas at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Arizona State University. She has taught at Texas Tech University, Arizona State University, and in the Maricopa County (AZ) Community Colleges. She is married to Warren Hoffer, a retired professor of voice at ASU, with whom she often performs.


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Ann Sears

is a former President of the American Matthay Association. She also serves as Professor of Music and Director of Performance at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where she teaches piano and courses in European and American music, including African-American music and American musical theater. She holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music, Arizona State University, and The Catholic University of America, where her doctoral dissertation was about American art song in turn-of-the-century Boston. She is well-known for her performances and publications in American music, and has presented papers and lecture recitals at national meetings of the Sonneck Society for American Music, the College Music Society, and the American Matthay Association. Concert appearances include the Badia di Cava Music Festival in Italy, the Master Musicians Festival in Kentucky, the Sumner School Museum and St. Patrick's in the City in Washington, D.C., the Gardner Museum and the French Library in Boston, and various schools and universities in the United States. Her research interests are American art song, the concert tradition in African American music, and American opera and musical theater. A compact disc, Deep River: The Art Songs and Spirituals of Harry T. Burleigh, in collaboration with Oral Moses, bass, originally on Northeastern Records, has been reissued by Albany Records; and a new disc, Fi-yer! A Hundred Years of African-American Song, with tenor William Brown, was recently released by Albany. She is currently review editor of the College Music Society journal Symposium and membership secretary of the American Liszt Society.




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Stephen Siek

is a past President of the American Matthay Association and has recently completed Marley's Host: The Life and Teachings of Tobias Matthay, to be published soon. He has studied with Stewart Gordon, Donald Hageman, Frank Mannheimer, and Denise Lassimonne. He has concertized extensively throughout North America and in 1986 he performed the 24 preludes of Rachmaninoff in New York's Lincoln Center. He made his London debut in 1988. His numerous articles have appeared in such journals as the American Music Teacher and the Piano Quarterly, and in the summer 1993 issue of American Music he presented new research concerning musical figures active in post-Revolutionary Philadelphia. He is also a contributor to the second edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and other recent articles include pieces for the American Musical Instrument Society Journal and Symposium, the journal of the College Music Society. His recording of The Philadelphia Sonatas of Alexander Reinagle (c.1750-1809) was released on the Titanic label in 1998. Siek's interests have also extended to other areas of American history and culture, and he has published and lectured widely on the earlier work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. He holds the B. Mus. and the M. Mus. degrees from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. from the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati. He currently serves on the faculty of Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio.



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Dan Franklin Smith,

who resides in New York City, recently returned from Germany where he performed in, among other venues, Kurt Weill Zentrum in Dessau and the Lucas Cranach Hof in Wittenberg. As a solo recitalist, he made his European debut at Mariefred Kyrkan in Sweden in 1997, where he received a standing ovation and was hailed by the reviewer as "unequivocally one of the most brilliant pianists I have had the pleasure of hearing and reviewing!" Mr. Smith's debut recording of the Kurt Atterberg Concerto (a premiere recording) was released in September. He offered this work for his Swedish orchestral debut in October of 1998, with Maestro Arne Johansson conducting the Sofia Orchestra. Svenska Dagbladet described his performance as marked by a "sensitive ear, strong sense of style and fine musicianship . . . more than anyone could wish for." The performance, the concerto, and Mr. Smith were featured on SVT's Musikspegeln, which was broadcast throughout Sweden soon afterwards. Other European engagements have included Oslo and Paris. His 1999-2000 schedule features orchestral appearances in England with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta and with the Sofia Orchestra in Stockholm, in addition to recitals in London, Stockholm and Leipzig. In the United States he has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician and vocal accompanist at such venues as the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Cleveland Museum's Distinguished Artist Series, and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. In the 1999-2000 season he will perform solo recitals in Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, Virginia, California and New York. This fall he will also perform the Robert Schumann Piano Concerto with Maestro Jean-Pierre Schmitt and the Lawyers Orchestra in NYC. Mr. Smith's work as a solo artist has been described as "breathtakingly beautiful . . . . The dazzling, agile finger work left the audience in utter awe of Smith's technical skill and beauty of tone . . . . His quiet sincere and straight forward manner relies on an economy of movement and energy which allows him introspection into the core of the music."

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Jane Luther Smith

is a former winner of the Clara Wells Scholarship Auditions and she holds the Licentiate Performer's Diploma in Piano from London's Royal Academy of Music. Her work with first-generation Matthay students includes extensive study with Denise Lassimonne in England and additional work with the late Frank Mannheimer. She received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Degrees (cum laude Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of South Carolina where her teachers included John Williams and John Kenneth Adams . Miss Smith was also a student of the late Elizabeth Newell at Coker College in Hartsville, South Carolina. Her experience as a performer has been varied, including appearances in England, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, Texas, California, Minnesota, and Canada. In 1976 she was the winner of the AMA's Clara Wells Piano Auditions held at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and she was the recipient of a Chattanooga Cotton Ball Fellowship for advanced study in music in competitions held at the University of Tennessee (Chattanooga). She has been a featured performer both on the South Carolina Educational TV and Radio networks. She was the winner of the 1996 "Woman of Achievement Award" in the area of fine arts presented by the YWCA of the Upper Lowlands, Inc. In addition to her demand as a solo recitalist, she is on the music faculty of the University of South Carolina Sumter and has taught Music Fundamentals for Central Carolina Technical College. Jane Luther Smith is listed on the South Carolina Arts Commission Approved Performing Artist Roster. She is owner of Jane Luther Smith Piano Studios in Sumter. .



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Elizabeth Vandevander

received her B.S. degree in music education from Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, and her M.A. from Goddard College in Vermont She has worked extensively with Donald Hageman, who introduced her to the Matthay principles. She has served as Archivist for the American Matthay Association and from 1987 to 2002, as the Editor of the Matthay News. She presently serves as Secretary to the AMA. Mrs. Vandevander has performed for concert series at the Dayton (Ohio) Art Institute, the Dayton Music Club, the Sigma Alpha Iota women's professional music sorority, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Dayton, and First Church in Belfast, Maine. She has also played on the Shiloh Church Concert Series in Dayton. Presently she is a member of the piano faculty at the University of Dayton, and she also maintains a thriving piano studio in Dayton.




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Tracy Xian

was born in the city of Shanghai in the Peoples Republic of China and began playing the piano at the age of four. She was quickly accepted into the prestigious pre-college division of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and made her debut as a pianist at the age of six. Following graduation, she came to the United States to pursue work in advanced piano performance and her studies eventually culminated in the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Louisiana State University, where she was a student of Constance Carroll. During her collegiate career, she presented many solo recitals throughout the southeastern United States and was featured in performances at several national level music conferences including Music Teachers National Association and the American Matthay Piano Association. Dr. Xian has also been a prizewinner in both national and international piano competitions including Silver Medalist in the Beethoven Club International Piano Competition and National Winner of Music Teachers National Association Collegiate Artist Piano Competition. Dr. Xian has also appeared as chamber musician and soloist with orchestra on various recital series and music festivals throughout the United States and some of her performances have been broadcast on national public radio. She has been described as “a complete pianist whose impeccable technique is exceeded only by the depth of her conceptual insight and musical expression.” Dr. Xian is also an enthusiastic and effective communicator who is in great demand as a teacher. She teaches piano through the Music Conservatory at Columbus State University and Edgewood United Methodist Church in Columbus, Georgia, and also at the First United Methodist Church of LaGrange, Georgia. She also serves as pianist for Edgewood United Methodist Church and as a collaborative pianist in the music department at LaGrange College, in LaGrange, Georgia.


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