Matthay Festival 2014
Texas Wesleyan University
Recitalists and Presenters
is
head
of piano studies at the University of Richmond. He is active as a
recitalist, composer, chamber musician, and poet,
and his playing has been acclaimed in Europe and America. Performing on
many college campuses over the years, and frequently touring the
eastern United States, he has also performed at venues such as Alice
Tully Hall, the National Gallery of Art, the French Embassy, the Library
of Congress, and at the Hudson River, Kemper, Virginia, and Spencer
Museums. In Paris he has performed at the Salle Cortot and Salle
Michelet in Paris where he has six times been artist-in-residence at
Cité Internationale des Arts.
Richard Becker’s music has been commissioned by Meet the Composer
Grants, by grants from CRS Records, by the Peabody Trio in conjunction
with the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and he has been a
MacDowell Colony Fellow and nominee for an American Academy of Arts and
Letters award. His performances and his music have been heard on NPR,
Voice of America, WNYC, WETA, WGMS, and WCVE, and at the American Music
Festival of the National Gallery of Art. They have also been featured at
CMS and MTNA conferences and during residencies at Marshall, James
Madison, Eastern Mennonite Universities,the Longy School of Music and
the Peabody and New England Conservatories and at the Eastman School of
Music. He coached chamber music alongside the late Blanche Moyse and he
performed and coached chamber music with members of the Shanghai
Quartet during their the decade of an artist-residency at University of
Richmond
Richard Becker’s playing has been cited for its “powerful
interpretations” by the Washington Post, for being “admirable in taste and technique” by the New York Times, and for being “brilliant and with seamless passagework and elegant phrasing” by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
His playing is grounded in the tradition of Arthur Schnabel acquired
during his study with the late Leonard Shure while at Boston University
(M. Mus.). His teaching owes much to the relaxation methods of Tobias
Matthay, learned from Cécile Staub Genhart during his years at the
Eastman School of Music (B.Mus. and Performers Certificate). He taught
at the University of Texas and Boston University prior to joining the
music faculty of the University of Richmond in 1975.
In recent years, Richard Becker’s poetry has been published by America, Columbia Magazine, Visions-International, Cold Mountain and Poetica Magazine: Contemporary Jewish Writing and Art, and his poetic sequence, “FATES,” was a 2008 chapbook of The Literary Review. His compositions have been recorded by CRS and his performances are available on Albany Records.
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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, which recently
completed 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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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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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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is the current President of the American Matthay Association for Piano. A former editor
of the Matthay News, McRoberts wrote an article about Matthay for Clavíer Companion, and gave a presentation on Matthay principles for the national conference
of Music Teachers National Association. He has served Tennessee Music Teachers Association as president and editor of Tennessee Music Teacher, contributed reviews
of new music for Piano Guild Notes, and currently is president of
the Southern Chapter of the College Music Society. He is University
Professor of Music at Union
University in Jackson, Tennessee, where he teaches private piano and
related courses, and is coordinator of keyboard studies and of concerts
and recitals.
A former governor of Province 15 for Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, he is
faculty advisor to the Iota Sigma Chapter. He performs frequently as a
soloist and a
collaborative musician and with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra. He has
made numerous presentations for the American Matthay Association for
Piano, the
Southern Chapter of the College Music Society, and various music teacher
groups, as well as in China, Japan, Brazil, and Haiti. A church
organist for
over twenty-five years, he currently plays at First United Methodist
Church in Jackson, Tennessee.
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maintains a full performance schedule as recitalist, orchestral soloist and chamber musician in major venues throughout the world. After her European debut in Rome in 1987, further highlights have included Carnegie Recital Hall, Théâtre du Châtelet & Salle Cortot (Paris), Mozarteum (Salzburg), Liszt Museum (Budapest), Orchestra Hall (Chicago), Alte Handelsbörse (Leipzig), Levoca (Slovakia), Bass Hall (Fort Worth), as well as the Ravinia and Gilmore International Piano Festivals. Petronel has appeared with orchestras such as the St. Petersburg State (Russia), Martinú (Czech Republic), Bucaramanga (Colombia), Batumi (Republic of Georgia), Sicilian Chamber (Italy), and several others in the US and South Africa, under the batons of Vasily Petrenko, Bernhard Gueller, Dmitry Manilov, Yoshimi Takeda, Omri Hadari, Wolfgang Bothe, James Brooks, Robert Hanson, and Fuzao Kajima.
Her critical acclaim has culminated in nominations for three Grammy® Awards, including "Best Instrumental Solo Album" for her debut disc Transfigured Bach: Bach Transcriptions of Bartok, Lipatti & Friedman. As an exclusive recording artist for Hänssler Classic, Transfigured Mozart (2006) and Transfigured Beethoven (2008) followed. Transfigured Tchaikovsky includes world premiere recordings of art song transcriptions by Isaac Mikhnovsky. She has received critical ovations on three continents. New York critic Harris Goldsmith wrote that "she showed herself to have the requisite fleetness and volatile elegance to take on Rachmaninoff's celebrated arrangement of Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream Scherzo," and he praised her performance of the composer's second Sonata by noting that "Bombast was miraculously circumvented and a shimmering lyricism (especially in the second movement) was convincingly nurtured in this tasteful recreation." She has also distinguished herself as a chamber musician, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram praised her collaboration with the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth in Franck's demanding Quintet in F minor: "Malan blended beautifully with the strings. Employing an exceptionally clean and pure tone, she was always where she needed to be without calling undue attention to herself. Overall, it was a magnificent display of both precision and grandeur."
A native of South Africa, Ms. Malan studied as a youngster with famed South African pedagogue Adolph Hallis, a Matthay pupil. She later studied in the United States with Ralph Votapek and Joseph Banowetz, and she currently makes her home in Texas. Petronel Malan's website is www.petronelmalan.com.
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Arjola Miruku
is a Nationally Certified Music Teacher and holds a Master of Music degree in Piano Pedagogy from Texas Christian University where she received a Graduate Assistantship. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Rollins College earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Piano Performance on a full scholarship studying with Artist-in-Residence Dr. Gary Wolf. Under his tutelage, Ms. Miruku won the Orlando Music Club Piano Competition consecutively for two years, performed as a soloist with the Rollins College Orchestra, and was featured at The Boheme Bösendorfer Lounge Kessler Signature Young Artist Series. At Rollins, she was a chapter founding member and served as President of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity for Women where she was awarded the Sword of Honor and the Collegiate Honor Award for Musicianship, Scholarship, and Leadership.
Her other musical interests led to a semester study in London interning with St. Martin-in-the-Fields, concentrating on the classical music business. In London, she continued her piano studies at the Royal Academy of Music. In addition, she created and hosted a weekly program titled PianoForte on WPRK- 91.5 FM Radio and was the score reader for the live webcast of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
Ms. Miruku is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda and MTNA, having served as President of the TCU Collegiate Chapter and presented at the national conference. Also a member of TMTA and FWMTA, she is a frequent adjudicator at many local festivals, contests and Texas state conventions. She has presented lecture recitals on the technical and teaching principles of Matthay at the TMTA state conferences, the American Matthay Association for Piano Festival, and local teachers' associations. Based on her research, she was awarded the SAI Professional Development Grant and also published an article on this topic in the American Music Teacher. Alongside her positions as Instructor in Musicology and Class Piano and Preparatory Division faculty at Texas Christian University, Ms. Miruku is an adjunct Professor of Piano at Texas Wesleyan University and has her own private studio.
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Jacqueline Privette Pope
is a native of South Carolina, and received her Bachelor of
Arts with a major in music education from Furman University in
Greenville. She later studied voice with Audrey Nasserman at
the University of Louisville. She spent a 10-month
period in Ruschlikon, Switzerland (Zurich Canton) at the Baptist
International Seminary, with her then husband, Wallace Kilpatrick,
and studied theology for 2 semesters as was required of wives. The
international experience shaped a lot of Jacqueline's thoughts
afterwards. When she returned to
Louisville she taught junior high school music for a year before
going to Atlanta, where she studied voice with Irene Harrower
for 2 years. Jackie received a Master of Music with emphasis on
voice peformance from Georgia State Uiversity in 1987, studying
voice with Peter Harrower, a bass soloist of some
renown. She also studied in London with Meribeth Bunch in
conjunction with her Master's study, learning more about the anatomy
of the voice, and she also pursued some studies at the Royal Academy of Medicine. She studied piano with Powell Everhart in Atlanta for 3 years
and with Joseph Meeks of Kennesaw State University. For 10 years she taught in
the Cobb County Public Schools as Music Specialist, and for
several years she was the music director of Cobb Children's Theater.
She has served the Nativity Lutheran Church since 1971, where she
served as organist, pianist, Music Director, and Chancel Choir
Director, at various times. She served as Director of Music for 9 years
at Southminster Presbyterian Church, where she established their
first hand-bell program, as well as directing chancel choir and
children's choirs. Jackie is nationally certified by the National
Music Teachers Association as a voice performer and teacher of voice.
and by the Georgia Music Teachers Association as a certified piano teacher. She is also a
member of MTNA. Jackie maintains
a voice and piano studio in Austell, Georgia, where she and her husband,
James, now live. She often presents lecture recitals on various topics for area music teachers and is in demand for judging auditions and competitions.
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has studied with Eleanor Sokoloff, Cécile Genhart, and
Frank Mannheimer.
He holds the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the
Eastman School of Music, in addition to the Performer's Certificate and Artist Diploma in piano performance. He was awarded a Fulbright Grant for two years study with Friedrich Wührer at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, and a summer's study with Kurt Neumüller at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.
He is currently Associate Professor of Piano at the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has served since 1974, and he previously taught at Michigan State University, where he recorded numerous piano solo and chamber music recital programs for National Educational Television.
Mr. Renner is an active teacher, adjudicator, piano soloist and chamber musician with a special interest in playing piano four-hand recitals. With his colleague, Betty Mallard, he has given four-hand recitals and master classes throughout the United States including the Murray Dranoff International Symposium for Two-Piano and Four-Hand Performances in Miami, Florida. Recent Performances with Betty Mallard include Hong Kong Baptist University and Chinese University in Hong Kong and the Steinway Club in Nicosia, Cyprus.
He has received teaching awards from the Austin District Music Teachers Association and the Texas Music Teachers Association. Many former students hold teaching positions at Music Schools, Colleges and Universities in the United States and abroad.
Mr. Renner was also honored by the establishment of a Presidential Endowed Scholarship in Piano in his name by former University of Texas president, Lorene Rogers.
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has been praised by the Washington Post for a performance that "met the highest standards," and for "spotless articulation" that "gave the whole program unusual polish and virtuoso marks." The New York Times stated that "he won the audience over for himself with exquisite performances—both commanding and full of character."
Neil Rutman has performed in over thirty countries in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He has appeared in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Tokyo's Bunka Kaikan, and the Schola Cantorum in Paris, with recent concert tours in the last five years of the United Kingdom, Europe, New Zealand, Japan, and the Persian Gulf. Mr. Rutman has distinguished himself as a top prize winner in several international competitions including the Busoni, Kapell, Casadesus, Joanna Hodges, Concert Artist Guild, a first prize for his performance of the Goldberg Variations at the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition, and recently, first prizes in two categories at the French Piano Institute International Competition in Paris. He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and for Artistic Excellence from the Astral Foundation of Philadelphia. The latter allowed him to commission a new piano concerto by composer Albert Glinsky, which he premiered under the baton of conductor Eiji Oue. Among his recordings are two Mozart Piano Concerti with the Academy of London Orchestra, an all Poulenc CD with Emmy-Award winning actor Tony Randall providing the narration in The Story of Babar the Little Elephant, and his all-Chopin release on the Pro Musica label. Mr. Rutman has recently authored articles for the Piano Quarterly, The Piano Teacher, an interview with Aiko Onishi in Clavier, and is a contributing author to the book The Pianist's Craft. He is currently in the process of authoring a book compiling hundreds of interpretative anecdotes and imageries on specific pieces from the piano repertoire.
A native of San Francisco, Mr. Rutman had his formative training under the musical guidance of Aiko Onishi. He later graduated from the Eastman School of Music and Peabody Conservatory, where he worked with Cécile Genhart, Ellen Mack, and Leon Fleisher. Mr. Rutman is Artist-in-Residence at the University of Central Arkansas. As a young man, under the tutelage of Onishi, he became acquainted with the pianistic techniques of the English pedagogue Tobias Matthay, whose ideas he continues to share and emphasize with his own students and in Master Classes. Since 2008 his students have won top prizes in numerous competitions including the East-West Artist Auditions in New York City, the Clara Wells International Competition, and the MTNA.
A fine amateur boxer by avocation, Neil Rutman is the coach for the University of Central Arkansas Boxing Team. He is also a volunteer Probation Officer and mentor for juvenile offenders in Faulkner County. In 2012 Mr. Rutman was one of 30 Americans to be awarded the Martin Luther King -President Barack Obama Service Award for his work with troubled youth in his county. .
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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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Jennifer Shoup
received a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance and Certificate in Piano Pedagogy from
Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Music degree in Performance from the University of Dayton. She
began Doctoral studies at Arizona State University. Her teachers include Donald Hageman, Eric Street, Enrique
Graf and Caio Pagano. Additional studies took place in Vienna, Austria and at Belgais Center for the Arts
(Portugal).
Jennifer has been a featured soloist with the National Orchestras of Chile, Costa Rica and the University of
Dayton Orchestra. She has presented solo recitals for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival Piano Series (South Carolina), Sigma Alpha Iota National Convention (Florida) and numerous faculty artist series across the United States. She frequently lectures, recently presenting a lecture-recital for the American Matthay Association for Piano at the University of Kansas and the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs Convention held in Cleveland. She has worked with a diverse range of artists including Emanuel Ax, Maria Joao Pires, Earl Wild and Grammy award-winning composer Lucy Simon.
Jennifer has taught for the prestigious Carnegie Mellon Prep School and as adjunct faculty for Cedarville University and the University of Dayton. She currently owns The Piano Preparatory School and Beavercreek Music, serving more than two hundred families in Dayton, Ohio.
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is a past President of the American Matthay Association.
His biography of Matthay, England's Piano Sage:
The Life and Teachings of Tobias Matthay, was published by
Scarecrow Press in December of 2011.
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, the
Piano
Quarterly, and International Piano, 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 Revised New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the new edition of the Grove Dictionary of American Music,
and
his other articles include pieces for the American Musical Instrument Society
Journal,
Symposium (the journal of the College Music Society), and the Piano Journal of the European Piano Teachers' Association.
He has also recently annotated a series of CDs for APR
commemorating Matthay's pupils—including Harriet Cohen, Irene Scharrer,
Myra Hess, Bartlett & Robertson, and an extensive collection of rare discs featuring Matthay's own recordings. For the Hyperion label, he has also annotated a highly praised disc of the solo works
of Charles Griffes performed by Garrick Ohlsson.
His highly praised 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, including a three-lecture series on Wright's
early work in Chicago in July of 2013. He has recently signed a
contract with Rowman & Littlefield to author A Dictionary for the Modern Pianist, scheduled to appear in 2015, as a component of R&L's musical instrument dictionary series. 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. A professor emeritus of music
at Wittenberg University in Ohio, he now lives in Tempe, Arizona.
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has served as Vice-President of the American Matthay Association. Currently residing in New York City, he 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 of 1999. 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 featured 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 performed solo recitals in Maryland, Ohio, New
Jersey, Virginia, California and New York. He has also
performed the Schumann 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." Dan Franklin Smith's website is www.danfranklinsmith.com.
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Steven Smith
has performed recitals and concertos throughout the world and has recorded solo recitals for the French, German, and Spanish national radios, Radio 4 Hong Kong, and America’s PBS. His compact discs appear on the Cambria and Innova labels. He has given many master classes and lecture recitals for universities and teacher associations in the United States and abroad, including the University of Melbourne, Australia, Hong Kong’s Academy of Performing Arts, and Glasgow’s Royal Scottish Academy, among others. Recently he has focused on a comprehensive series of recitals of Beethoven’s Sonatas and other repertoire. He received critical acclaim for his series of new-music solo recitals, Piano Entente, presented at Merkin Concert Hall in New York and at St. John’s Smith Square, London. Smith was honored in 2005 with the PSU College of Arts and Architecture’s Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching; previously he won the Teacher of the Year Award of the Pennsylvania Music Teachers’ Association. His students have won significant national awards, including the Fulbright Scholarship and the Clara Wells Competition of the Matthay Association. In the Music Teachers National Association competitions since 1991, four of his Penn State students have been national semifinalists (Pennsylvania winners). He received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Baylor University, and his Master’s and D.M.A. degrees from The Eastman School of Music, as well as an Artist’s Diploma from the Mozarteum of Salzburg, Austria, where he was a Fulbright scholar. His teachers have included Cécile Genhart and Kurt Neumüller.
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Raymond Songayllo
earned his Bachelor
and Master of Music degrees in
piano from Northwestern University. He studied at Aspen, in New York with Alexander
Uninsky and Grant Johannesen, and in Boston with Alexander Borovsky. He has performed
throughout the U.S. and has appeared twice at Carnegie Recital Hall. As a composer, he
has had works presented in various venues, college and university events, festivals and
conferences, and in Fontainebleau, working in composition at the Conservatoire Americaine.
He won the Keyboard Category Award at the Delius Competition at Jacksonville University in
1976, 1992, and 1993. He has received grants from both the Minnesota Composers Forum and
Meet the Composer.
After 27 years of college/university teaching, he is currently performing, lecturing,
composing, and adjudicating. In June of 1990, he made his European debut with two solo
recitals in Geneva under the auspices of Concerts Atlantique of New York. Mr. Songayllo
is a founding member of the Iowa Composers Forum, and was the recipient of the 1993 Pyle
Commission for his Piano Quintet. In the summer of 1994 he was one of 18 pianists at the
French Piano Institute in Paris, appearing in recital at the Salle Cortot. In June 1995 he
performed a lecture/recital at the College Music Society International Conference in Berlin.
In July of 1996 he again performed at the Salle Cortot, and also premiered a new composition,
Hommage à Fauré, in the Salle Munch of the École Normale.
In the 1996-97 season, Mr. Songayllo has appeared as soloist and composer in various venues,
including, again, at the College Music Society Conference in Vienna. His compositions
include works for solo piano, harpsichord, piano with instrumental combinations,
songs, orchestral compositions. His style is eclectic, employing both tonal and non-tonal
styles.
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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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is a former President of the American Matthay Association and is a frequent
recitalist and ensemble musician who performs throughout the
United States and Europe. Major cities where he has been heard include New York,
Toronto, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Salzburg, Brussels, and Merida. He frequently conducts
workshops, master classes and clinics at numerous colleges and universities.
Dr. Wolf holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music
where his piano study was with Cécile Staub Genhart. He previously studied with Gordon
Terwilliger and Adrian Pouliot at Wichita State University and also with Kurt Neumuller as
a Fulbright Scholar at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. He is active in many
professional organizations and has taught many award-winning students. Dr. Wolf holds
the rank of Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Central Florida.
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has studied with Cécile Genhart,
Frank Mannheimer, and Frank Glazer. She has taught privately
in the Rochester area for more than 30 years,
and adjudicated for the National Guild of Piano Teachers for more than 35 years. An active performer in the
Rochester area as both soloist and collaborator, she is a member of the Rochester Morning Musicale and the
Rochester Alumni Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon. She is also District Director for Mu Phi Epsilon's Eastern Great
Lakes Province One and she mentors chapters at the Eastman School of Music and Ithaca College. She holds Bachelor’s
and Master’s degrees from Eastman in piano performance and pedagogy, and while there she performed as soloist
with the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra. She also holds a Master's degree in Counseling from the University of
Rochester and is the retired Director of Guidance for the Churchville-Chili Central School District in suburban
Rochester. In the summer of 2005 she presented a workshop for school counselors at the Eastman Summer Session
on "Career Counseling for Music Students.”
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