Matthay Festival 2018
Union University
Recitalists and Presenters
serves as Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Alabama where he coordinates the Gloria Narramore Moody Piano Area. As soloist and collaborator, Kevin has performed throughout the United States and abroad, and recent performances have included Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, and Saint-Saëns’s Le Carnaval des animaux. Performing regularly as a chamber musician, Kevin has been a member of the Semplice Duo with flutist Cristina Ballatori for the past 17 years, and their performances have included world premieres at the National Flute Association Conference as well as recitals in Wisconsin, Texas, Colorado, Virginia, Alabama, New York, and Europe.
Recently named the 2015-2017 Teacher of the Year by the Alabama Music Teachers Association, he maintains an award-winning studio of college and pre-college students, and his students have garnered awards at the state, regional, and national levels, including two Clara Wells honorees. He serves on the faculties of the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Italy, and the New Orleans Piano Institute.
Kevin holds degrees with honors from the Eastman School of Music, Louisiana State University, and Birmingham-Southern College, and his former teachers include Barry Snyder, Constance Knox Carroll, Anne Koscielny, Ann Schein, William DeVan, and Betty Sue Shepherd.
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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. 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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holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Arts degrees in Piano Performance and is MTNA Nationally Certified. Her principal teacher has been Aiko Onishi (California). She also studied with Stephen Siek (Ohio), Julian DeGray (New York), and Denise Lassimonne (England). She has been a lecturer, performer, and master class teacher. She taught at Mission and West Valley Colleges in California and taught full time privately for many years. She now enjoys teaching a small number of students in Larkspur, Colorado, where she lives with her husband.
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has an ancient but interrupted history with the American Matthay Association. In 1971, while he was a student of Donald Hageman, he was the recipient of the first Clara Wells award; he received that honor again in 1974. In 1976 he was privileged to play a solo recital for the festival held at the Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music; he presented another recital for the festival at San Jose State University in 1980. In 1976 Jim became the principal pianist for the San Francisco Ballet where he played classes and rehearsals for the company and served as orchestra keyboardist. This also gave him the opportunity to perform such works as the Stravinsky Capriccio and the Tchaikovsky Third Concerto as piano soloist at various venues, including Ravinia, the Edinburgh Festival, Blossom Center, and the White House. During this time he also studied with pianist Marta Bracchi-LeRoux.
In 1983 he thought he had had enough of playing the piano, and he moved to Las Vegas to become a poker dealer. After several years in that challenging city he came to see his need for a Higher Power, and to his surprise, he eventually became a believer and follower of Jesus Christ. This led to him moving to Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1995 in order to be involved with Precept Ministries. He also took his first job in the restaurant industry, and he has been a waiter at St. John's Restaurant for the past fifteen years.
Several years ago Jim waited on the pianist Gloria Chien. They struck up a conversation, and this led to Jim wondering whether or not he could still play the piano at a "serious" level. In order to explore this possibility he started the St. Elmo Piano Trio with two excellent musicians from his church, Suzanne Sims (cello) and Heidi Barker (violin). They performed a number of well-received concerts for several years until their violinist left to pursue educational opportunities. Then, in 2015, Jim decided to start working on a solo recital, his first in almost 35 years. A year later he presented a program consisting of two of his "bucket list" pieces, the Beethoven Eroica Variations and the Schubert B-flat Sonata. Also on the program was the Elliott Carter Catènaires. He followed that in 2017 with selections by Debussy, Satie, and Ravel on a program with the Chopin B Minor Sonata, this time with valuable teaching/coaching assistance from Dr. Steven Wilber of Lee University.
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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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Janice Larson Razaq
is the current Vice-President of the American Matthay Association. She holds a doctorate from Texas Tech University and additional degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Illinois. Her Matthay-trained teachers include Frank Mannheimer and
Cécile Genhart. A Fulbright scholar in England, she performed at Wigmore Hall in London, where she received excellent reviews. She was an award winner in the Maria Canals International Competition in Barcelona. Dr. Razaq is heard on WFMT and Minnesota Public Radio and plays concertos with regional orchestras. Solo performances range across the country. Her recent performances/presentations in the summer of 2013 included an appearance at the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers Association National Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Dr. Razaq is active in the Illinois State Music Teachers Association, where she has been Certification Chair, and is currently State President. She is Director of Keyboard Studies at William Rainey Harper College in Palatine where she teaches applied piano, non-credit piano, class piano and piano ensemble. She often presents lecture recitals on various topics for area music teachers groups and is in demand for judging auditions and competitions.
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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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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, and for Deutsche Grammophon, a reissue of Paul Baumgartner's legendary recording of the Diabelli Variations. He has also annotated several titles for Decca, including the recent Eloquence reissue of Moura Lympany's 1941-42 recording of Rachmaninoff's 24 Preludes.
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 currently maintains a studio in Tempe, Arizona. Its website is www.pianosage.net/studio.html
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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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is the current treasurer of the American Matthay Association for Piano and is an active performer both as soloist and collaborator. A student of Céecile Staub Genhart and Frank Mannheimer, Mrs. Zale attended the Eastman School of Music and was awarded Bachelor of Music with Distinction and Master of Music degrees in performance and pedagogy. While at Eastman, she performed as a soloist with the Eastman Rochester Orchestra, was awarded a graduate assistantship and taught class piano.
After several decades of maintaining a large independent piano studio in Rochester, New York, Mrs. Zale earned a Master of Science degree in counseling from the University of Rochester and served as a school counselor and administrator for eighteen years. At the time of her retirement in 2000, she was the Director of Counseling responsible for the K-12 School Counselor program in the Churchville-Chili School District.
Mrs. Zale has presented three lecture/performances at the annual Matthay Festivals, most recently at the 2014 Festival at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth. Texas. Mrs. Zale is also a member of Mu Phi Epsilon, International Professional Music Fraternity and was a featured soloist at the 2008 Mu Phi Epsilon International Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. In 2011, she was awarded the Orah Ashley Lamke Distinguished Alumna Award by the fraternity. As a District Director, she mentors the Mu Phi Epsilon collegiate chapters at the Eastman School of Music, Ithaca College, and SUNY Binghamton.
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