Matthay Festival 2017
Arizona State University
Recitalists and Presenters
are known for their adrenalized performances, original compositions, and notorious music videos. Mr. Anderson and Ms. Roe met in 2000 as freshmen at The Juilliard School and formed their
dynamic musical partnership shortly thereafter. They have since toured extensively, with notable
recitals in Beijing, Seoul, Singapore, Italy, Vancouver, and most major US cities, as well as in nearly
every New York City venue imaginable, from Carnegie Hall to children’s hospitals. Together they
have appeared on MTV’s Total Request Live, NPR’s All Things Considered and From the Top, APM’s
Performance Today, the Cliburn Concert Series, the Gilmore and the Gina Bachauer International
Piano Festivals, and dozens of summer chamber music festivals. Their orchestral engagements
include performances with the Calgary, Hartford, Santa Fe, and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestras,
among others, and with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. In recognition of their
singular vision for the advancement of classical music, they have been invited to present at
numerous international leader symposiums, including EG (Entertainment Gathering), the Imagine
Solutions Conference, Chicago Ideas Week, and Mexico’s Think Tank Festival for Brilliant Minds.
Their scores are published by Alfred Music on the “Anderson & Roe Duos & Duets Series” and by
Awkward Fermata Press.
Mr. Anderson and Ms. Roe left an indelible impression at The Juilliard School, where they both
earned their bachelor’s and master’s degrees. A live performance by the Anderson & Roe Piano
Duo was handpicked to appear on the Sounds of Juilliard CD celebrating the school’s centenary.
In 2006, given only two months to compose and prepare, they gave the world premiere of their
own composition Star Wars Fantasy: Four Impressions for Two Pianos, replacing John Williams
on Juilliard’s “Cinema Serenades” concert in Alice Tully Hall. Additionally, the two directed the
groundbreaking project “Life Between the Keys,” an event that involved the entire Juilliard Piano
Class of 2004; this performance project celebrated the class’s unique camaraderie and chronicled
its Juilliard experience in an all-American program of piano music.
Anderson & Roe believe strongly in the communicative potential of music, and their performances,
compositions, websites, videos, recordings, and writings all serve this mission, bringing joy to
people around the world. As the
Northwest Reverb
recently stated, “[Anderson & Roe] swept the
audience into a cheering mass of humanity, making a strong case that playing piano is the most fun
thing that two people could ever do together.”
GREG ANDERSON won the Clara Wells Scholarship Auditions in 2000, and has performed at previous Matthay Festivals. His earlier teachers included Kim Craig and Aiko Onishi. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Juilliard as a student of Julian Martin, and his DMA from Yale as a student of Peter Frankl.
ELIZABETH JOY ROE grew up in the Chicago area, where her prominent teachers included Emilio del Rosario, Vladimir Leyetchkiss, and Theodore Edel. She earned both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at Juilliard, where she studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky.
Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe are Steinway Artists. Their website is
http://www.andersonroe.com/
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has performed at the National
Concert Hall in Taipei, the U.S. Embassy and Thai German Cultural Foundation Auditorium in Bangkok, the AUA Language
Center in Chiangmai, the Cité Universitaire in Paris, Conservatorio Superior in Tenerife, Curs International
Festival in Girona, Conservatory Professional de Musica in Vila-seca, and the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen.
Philip Dieckow, critic for Pinault Reviews in New York City, described her performance at Weill Hall as
“a splendid performance full of nuance and high contrast all within superb control.” She has been broadcast
on the radio in Italy, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Romania, Canada, and the U.S. She has been an orchestral soloist with
the Czech Radio Orchestra, the Medford String Orchestra, the Melrose Symphony Orchestra, and the Brookline Symphony Orchestra.
Jackie Wattenberg, critic for The Salem, Mass., Evening News, wrote that her solo with the Salem Philharmonic
“demonstrated a confident command of her instrument," and "her technique was equal to the fast and tricky runs.
Her phrasing was musical and her play of dynamics, a constant source of color. Caliri is a fine musician and
we hope to hear her again.” Her chamber music performances have been sponsored by the American Music Center,
the Harvard University Group For New Music, “Nightshift,” a Children's Special for WCVB-TV, channel 5 in Boston, and broadcast
on WGBH and WCRB. Lisa Caliri has recorded for Albany Records, and Centorino Productions, SAI Recording Project,
and will record Birds, Books 1 and 2 by Seymour Bernstein on Naxos later this year. Miss Caliri was a top prize
winner of the Clara Wells Piano Competition, Pinault International Piano Competition, and the Crescendo Competition
for Young
Artists. She was a recipient of the Yamaha Center Européen d'Activitiés Scholarship in Paris and the Museum
of Fine Arts Performance Certificate in Boston. Miss Caliri taught master classes at the Siam Kolkarn School
of Music and Kitathip Music School. She is a member of the faculty at The Boston Conservatory and the
board of directors for the American Matthay Association for Piano.
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is a native of Globe, Arizona, and a second-generation piano technician
who was doing bridle straps and shaping hammers by the age of 10. After receiving a bachelor of music education degree from Arizona State in 1950, he taught band, orchestra, and chorus for two years before returning to piano service in 1952. For many years he was senior artist technician at Baldwin, and was sent throughout the country by the company to service concert grands for their major artists such as André Watts. For a number of years, he also supervised the design and building of Baldwin's Acrosonic models in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 1960, he returned to Arizona to become resident piano technician at ASU, and in the same year he helped form the Phoenix Chapter of the Piano Technicians Guild. He taught his first class at an Annual PTG Convention in 1961 and has taught some piano technical subject almost every year since.
He received the "Man of Note" award of the PTG in 1976, and was placed in the "Hall of Fame" at the PTG headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas, in the early 1990s. He was also given the highest PTG award (The Golden Hammer) in 1996. By that point in time, Jim Coleman Sr (several of his sons, including Jim Jr, have followed in their father's footsteps) had been justly recognized as one of the leading teachers of piano tuning and technicianry in the United States, and accomplished professionals from all over the country continue to travel to Arizona to seek out his advice and counsel.
Even though confined to a wheelchair since 2000, he still teaches at two to three conferences per year for the PTG. He helped develop the present Tuning test for Registered Piano Technicians in 1978, and he currently markets a wide variety of instructional videos, covering topics ranging from basic tuning, to advanced temperament systems, to pinblock installation, at his website: http://www.pianotapes.com/
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is a third generation piano technician, beginning his career as an apprentice in his grandfather's shop in Calgary, Canada. He has since received training at Yamaha USA (Performance Piano Seminar), Kawai (Shigeru Kawai Technical Academy), and factory training at Steinway (New York), Schimmel (Braunschweig, Germany), and Bösendorfer (Vienna, Austria). Rick is the Manager of Keyboard Technology and Event Services at Arizona State University. In his 25 years at ASU, he has prepared pianos for over 7,000 concerts, collaborating with students, faculty, and some of the great musicians of our time. Rick is an active teacher and clinician at state and national seminars and institutes, specializing in hands-on tutoring. He has also served as Institute Director for the Piano Technicians Guild on a state and national level.
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has been a respected piano technician in the greater Phoenix area for over 30 years. He specializes in a variety of period tunings, and he has also rebuilt both modern and period instruments. He is an accomplished harpsichordist and has broad experience as a producer and arranger in the commercial field, which encompasses an extensive background in studio work, both in classical and pop realms. He has worked as a writer and arranger on jingles and soundtracks for clients as varied as Best Western Hotels, USA Today television, the A&E network and many others, and has also done documentary soundtrack work for NBC and the Discovery channel.
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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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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. For over 30 years, she was
married to the late Warren Hoffer, long a professor of voice at ASU, with whom
she often performed.
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is a past 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 the 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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at the age of 17,
is the winner of the high school division of the
2017 Clara Wells Fellowships. He began his piano studies at the age of six and has distinguished himself by winning dozens of awards, prizes and scholarships, most recently the Pittsburg Piano Festival Competition Senior Division Finalist, 2017 MTNA Regional Senior Division Honorable Mention, First prize in the 2017 Kansas State MTNA Senior Piano division. To his credit, Daniel won 2nd place in the 2016 ENKOR International Music Competition for Piano, and was an IIYM 2016 International Piano Competition Semi-Finalist and won 1st Place in The Kuleshov International Piano 2016 Competition. In 2015, Daniel placed First place in both the Heritage Philharmonic Concerto Competition and the Topeka Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. Daniel is a student of AMAP member Scott McBride Smith of the University of Kansas and has been under his tutelage for six years. Daniel’s hobbies include composing, ballet, solving encrypted puzzles and playing with his Bernese Mountain dog.
.
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Lloyd Meyer
has combined a personal interest in music with a successful business career spanning four decades, in virtually all segments of the musical instrument industry. His interest in music led him to seek a degree in music education in 1963 while also studying business and pursuing a career with the Dayton Hudson Corporation in Minneapolis, where he became a buyer and department manager in their Home Entertainment Division. Meyer’s business career was interrupted in 1966 when he was drafted into the U.S. Army Infantry division during the Vietnam War. After his military term, he continued his business education at Harvard University and completed the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.
He spent most of the 1970s with the Chicago Musical Instrument Company, then the largest manufacturer of musical instruments in the United States, which included Gibson guitars, Lowrey keyboards, Story & Clark pianos, Moog synthesizers, William Lewis violins, and Olds and Reynolds band instruments. He headed up the sales and marketing divisions and was responsible for developing the company’s highly successful retail mall program, that is, placing aggressive keyboard retailers into high traffic retail shopping center locations. He then developed similar marketing programs in Canada, Europe, Australia, and South Africa.
In 1978, he was recruited by the
Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), under Bill Paley, to join their Musical Instruments Division, which was also based in Chicago. As Senior Vice President of the Division, Meyer had general management and operating responsibility for nine different musical instrument companies, including Steinway pianos, Lyon & Healy harps, Fender guitars, Rodgers church organs, and Gemeinhardt flutes. The Music Division became the largest manufacturer of musical instruments in the U.S. during his tenure.
In 1982, CBS brought Meyer to New York to personally manage the Steinway world wide operations, which had developed serious quality problems and was operating at a significant loss. He became the first President after Henry Steinway to be given responsibility for both the Hamburg and New York factories, as well as the London and Berlin Concert & Artist facilities. Steinway was the most prestigious acquisition by CBS, and Meyer brought profitability to the division within his first year, in addition to making significant quality improvements—most notably the elimination of the controversial Teflon bushings in the (American division) piano's action. Meyer’s gifts of leadership and marketing experience led to other corporate appointments at CBS, and following
the sale of Steinway by CBS, he acquired a major piano rebuilding factory in New York City in 1988, and also established the Renner USA company, which is responsible for the product development, marketing, and distribution of Renner piano action parts for North and South America. He continues to own and manage the Renner USA business, based in Carefree, Arizona, which now represents the largest source of quality replacement piano parts in the U.S. and Canada. See http://www.rennerusa.com/
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Caio Pagano
is an internationally renowned concert pianist, teacher, and scholar. Since 1986, he has served on the faculty of Arizona State University, where he currently holds the honor of Regents' Professor of Piano. He is the recipient of many piano performance awards in Europe and in his native Brazil, having performed on four continents in more than 900 public performances as recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestral soloist.
He has premiered 36 works in concert halls worldwide, 25 of which were dedicated to him—including several concertos—and some of these he has also recorded. He was also the first pianist to perform the complete works of Schoenberg in several capitals of the world.
One of his most notable premières was Belgian composer Henri Pousseur’s avant garde
work Apostrophe et six réflexions , which he paired in New York and Washington, D.C., with Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. The New York Times wrote, “the Pousseur was transcendent, and the Beethoven was absolutely first-class, simultaneously idiomatic and original.” He also received plaudits from Paul Hume of the Washington Post: “I started jotting comments after each variation, but I abandoned that as I realized I was being presented with a conception that was an incandescent entity.”
The internationally famous conductors with whom Pagano has collaborated include Sergiu Comissiona, Camargo Guarnieri, Szimon Goldberg, Howard Griffits, John Neschling, James Sedares, Aylton Escobar, Eleazar de Carvalho, Silva Pereira, Ernest Bour, Morton Gould, Roberto Minczuk, and Roberto Tibiriçá. His repertoire is vast and includes many major twentieth-century works. He gave the Brazilian premieres both of Schoenberg’s Concerto, and of Bartók’s Second Concerto.
As Professor at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, he created the International Biennial of Music, which attracted many internationally acclaimed artists who collaborated with him, including Saschko Gawriloff, Cristof Caskel, Raphael Hillyer, Werner Taube, and Henry Schuman. He has also toured with Pierre Fournier, Janos Starker, Thomas Friedli, Szymon Goldberg and the Dutch Chamber Orchestra, Albor Rosenfeld, the St. Petersburg Quartet, Maria João Pires, Gerard Caussé, the St. Petersburg Quartet and the Jacques Thibaud Trio. Caio has been a featured artist at the Miami New World Festival, the Washington Interamerican Fest, the Grenoble Festival, the Megève Festival, the Merida Festival, the Montpellier Festival, and many others.
A frequent performer in East Asia, he has appeared in Beijing, Qingdao, Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe, Kyoto, and in Singapore at the Esplanade.
At ASU he created the Brazilian Arts Festival in 2000 (followed by two CDs, the first with two works for piano and orchestra by Brazilian composer Camargo Guarnieri, with the Czech National Symphony (including world première recordings of Guarnieri's Chôro), and the second with Trio for piano violin and horn by Almeida Prado, which he commissioned—both released by Summit Records) and the Steinway Chamber Music Festival in 2010, 2012, and 2014.
He has adjudicated international competitions in Portugal, Switzerland, Singapore, Brazil, the USA, and Panama. He became "Professor of the Year" at Arizona State University in 2010.
In partnership with Maria João Pires, Pagano created the Belgais Centre for Studies of the Arts in Portugal in 2000 and recorded Sounds of Belgais for Deutsche Gramophon. He created the Piano Department of the Institute Politechnic in Portugal.
His recording of Heitor Villa-Lobos's Music for Children has received outstanding reviews, and was named “CD of the Month” by BBC Music Magazine. It was also highly praised by Gramophone, CD Compact (Spain), and Fanfare. In 2012 he released a CD with the three Brahms Sonatas for violin, with Emmanuele Baldini, and the Quintets of Schubert (Trout) and Hummel with the Jacques Thibaud Trio, recorded live in Japan. In 2013 he released a CD with works of Chopin, for Soundset.
Caio Pagano is a Steinway Artist. He holds a DMA from Catholic University, where he worked with William Masselos.
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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, and his more recent A Dictionary for the Modern Pianist was published by Rowman & Littlefield in November 2016.
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 acclaimed 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 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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Jane Luther Smith
received the Licentiate Performer’s Diploma in Piano (L.R.A.M.) from the Royal Academy of Music in London. Her work with first-generation Matthay students includes extensive study with Denise Lassimonne in England and additional work with Frank Mannheimer in the United States. She earned the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees (cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) in piano performance and the post-graduate Performer's Certificate in piano from the University of South Carolina, where her teachers included AMAP members W. 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 in the United States has been varied, including appearances in California, Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. She has also performed in England, Canada, and Eastern Europe. In June of 2012 she performed a lecture/recital on the music of Robert Schumann at the Fourth World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia, where she was the only pianist representing South Carolina and was one of just twenty specially invited pianists from the United States who participated in the conference with more than 100 international pianists. The conference was held at the Isidor Bajic Music School.
As an avid promoter of historic architectural preservation, Miss Smith has been a featured piano soloist in several concerts with the string orchestra from the Charleston Symphony performing the Bach F minor Concerto, benefitting two of South Carolina’s landmarks—the Church of the Holy Cross in Stateburg and the Bishopville Opera House. Her music history research includes a special interest in American music of the 1920s “Jazz Age." In June of 2010 she presented a lecture/recital in the Legacy Theater at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia, where she performed transcriptions of popular standards as performed by legendary jazz pianist Art Tatum.
A first-prize winner of the prestigious Clara Wells Piano Competition presented by the American Matthay Association for Piano, and a recipient of a Chattanooga Cotton Ball Fellowship for Advanced study in Music, Miss Smith has been a featured performer on the South Carolina Educational TV and Radio networks. She has recorded two CDs of classical piano music and received the “Woman of Achievement” in the area of Fine Arts presented by the South Carolina YWCA of the Upper Lowlands, Inc.
In addition to her demand as a solo recitalist, she is a full-time music faculty member of the University of South Carolina Sumter. Jane Luther Smith is listed on the South Carolina Arts Commission Approved Performing Artist Roster. She is owner of the Jane Luther Smith Piano Studios in Sumter and is organist for the historic Church of the Ascension (Episcopal) in Hagood.
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Steven Herbert Smith
has performed throughout the world, and has recorded solo recitals for the French, German and Spanish national radios, Radio 4 Hong Kong, and America’s PBS, among others. Recent projects include a comprehensive series of Beethoven recitals and compact discs called Piano Masterworks of Beethoven (recently released on Soundwaves), including all the 32 Sonatas and many other beloved works of the Beethoven repertoire. Other recent performances include Beethoven presentations and master classes in Beijing and Zhengzhou, China. He has appeared frequently as a concerto soloist, and has given many varied presentations for universities and teacher associations in the U.S. and abroad, including Hong Kong’s Academy of Performing Arts and Glasgow’s Royal Scottish Academy; recitals and master classes in Australia and New Zealand included the University of Melbourne and Auckland University. He received critical acclaim for his series of new-music solo recitals, Piano Entente, presented at Merkin Concert Hall in New York and St John’s Smith Square, London. In addition to Beethoven, recent presentations include a lecture-recital in the use of the pedal at the London International Piano Symposium, 2015. Steven Herbert Smith is Professor emeritus of piano at The Pennsylvania State University’s School of Music, University Park. His degrees include the DMA and M.Mus. from the Eastman School of Music, as well as the Artist’s Diploma from the Mozarteum of Salzburg, Austria. His artist teachers included Cécile Genhart and Kurt Neumüller. Other Matthay connections were through his undergraduate teacher at Baylor University, Thomas Redcay, a student of Harold Craxton; and also Rodney Hoare, a British Matthay pupil who settled in Texas as an expatrate in the 1950s. More recently Steven worked in Vienna with the celebrated pianist Paul Badura-Skoda regarding aspects of the Beethoven repertoire.
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Michael Spreeman
is the creator of Ravenscroft Pianos and founder of Spreeman Piano Innovations, LLC, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. His experience includes over 35 years as a concert technician, piano rebuilder, service technician, and instructor. He has also worked as a technical consultant for Renner, Fazioli, Yamaha, Steinway, and Baldwin. His training includes an apprenticeship with Jim Coleman Sr, specialized Fazioli concert technician training in Sacile, Italy, concert technician and Disklavier training with the Yamaha Corporation of America, and music studies at Arizona State University. Michael teaches both nationally and internationally and has earned the German "Klavierbauer" certification. He is also a Registered Piano Technician with the Piano Technicians Guild. The Ravenscroft 9’ Model 275 offers virtually limitless possibilities to the pianist, delivering a seemingly endless spectrum of dynamics. The actions are individually CAD (computer-aided design) optimized to each piano in order to provide a precise control and finesse that is incomparable. The Ravenscroft 7' 3" Model 220 offers an enormous full bass, a clear lush tenor, and an exquisite singing treble, all of which characterize a meticulously sculpted sound. The actions are also individually CAD optimized to each piano in order to provide precise control and finesse that is incomparable. With both of these beautiful instruments, alluring, flowing lines outline German handcrafted cases to complete a peerless work of art in every respect. See http://www.ravenscroftpianos.com/
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Nicholas Susi
is the winner of the college division of the
2017 Clara Wells Fellowships. He has also received the 2015-2017 National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Award, and this season, he has fulfilled over 25 engagements across the country as performer, masterclass clinician, competition adjudicator, lecturer, and community outreach speaker.
Recent career highlights include the 2016 release of his debut recording, Scarlatti Now, two concerts for the Princess von Hohenzollern at her castle in Namedy, Germany, and his performance at the TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, The Netherlands, during the semifinals of the 2014 International Franz Liszt Piano Competition. Other noteworthy appearances include a performance at Klavierfestival Ruhr and concerto solos with the Omaha Symphony, Wiener Residenz Orchester, and St. Louis Chamber Orchestra among others.
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Nicholas just completed his doctorate at the University of Michigan, with previous studies at the University of Kansas and at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln as a two-time DAAD grantee. His primary teachers include Jack Winerock, Nina Tichman, and Arthur Greene. Nicholas will be moving to Duluth, Minnesota, in August to begin a full-time, tenure track Assistant Professorship at the College of St. Scholastica. For details on upcoming performances, booking information, and further listening, please visit his website: www.nicholas-susi.com
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