Matthay Festival 2020
College of St. Scholastica

Recitalists and Presenters



David Abbott

is a versatile pianist equally at home in chamber music or solo performance both on modern as well as historical instruments. He resided for ten years in Switzerland, performing both as soloist and collaborative artist throughout Switzerland and Germany and toured in Australia and Europe as a member of the Swiss Chamber Soloists. His recording of Schumann’s Piano Quartet and Quintet won the coveted Prix d’Or prize for outstanding chamber music recording. His most recent recording is a two-CD set of solo and chamber music by 20th-century composer Dmitri Shostakovitch. Dr. Abbott has served on the faculties of the Zürich and Schaffausen Conservatories of Music (Switzerland), and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (USA). He has directed summer courses in both piano and chamber music in Europe as well as in the United States for over 30 years. He regularly appears in recitals at many college campuses and music festivals across the country and often serves as an adjudicator, including serving on the jury for the final round of the MTNA national high school and collegiate piano competition. He was awarded a Bronze medal and two special prizes at the 1980 International Music Competition in Geneva. Dr. Abbott recently completed a sabbatical project researching and performing the solo piano and chamber music of Johannes Brahms throughout the Eastern United States. He has been a member of the faculty of Albion College, Albion, Michigan, since 2005 where he serves as Professor of Piano, Chamber Music, and Music History.








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Constance Carroll

is a native of Arizona and she holds a Master of Music and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. She was later awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for studies in Vienna and Salzburg, and for many years she also studied extensively with Matthay's pupil Frank Mannheimer. A frequent performer at previous Matthay Festivals, she has been praised throughout the nation for the elegance, refinement, and bravura of her playing. She has taught at Wisconsin State University in Superior, and Lenoir-Rhyne College in North Carolina, and was artist-in-residence at Centenary College of Louisiana for twenty-one years. She was re-appointed to the faculty at Louisiana State University in 1995, and in 1996 became the first recipient of the Barineau Professorship of Keyboard Studies. Through the LSU graduate school, she has trained many successful, highly advanced pianists.













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Barbara Bacik Case

is a concert pianist, church pianist, coach, accompanist, teacher, adjudicator, organist and chamber music performer. She holds a BM in piano from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Cécile Genhart, a Masters in Piano Performance from the University of Kansas, where she studied with John Perry, and a DMA from the University of Texas at Austin. Her doctoral dissertation on Dvorak’s Piano Trios has been included in the book entitled Chamber Music: A Research and Information Guide by John H. Baron. Dr. Case spent several years studying and performing in Vienna with concert artist Hans Kann, and she made her debut there in the Konzerthaus (Schubert Saal). The Kurier Newspaper called her a “Pianist of Note, who plays with lyricism and power.” She has also performed in Rome for Carlo Zecchi, and she worked with Boris Goldovsky at the Cleveland Opera’s performance of Carmen, and she also worked with Kurt Neumuller in Salzburg at the Mozarteum. She has coached several students who were accepted into the Van Cliburn Summer Piano Institute in Fort Worth. She is a former coach/accompanist and Assistant Professor of Piano at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, and she currently has a private piano class and serves as a church pianist/organist.













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Kevin Chance

is currently the President of the American Matthay Association and he serves as Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Alabama, where he coordinates the Gloria Narramore Moody Piano Area. As soloist and collaborator, he 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, Dr. Chance 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. Dr. Chance is a member of the Semplice Duo with flutist Cristina Ballatori. In August 2004, they were named the winners of the Notes at 9,000 Emerging Artist Series Competition in Colorado. Past seasons have taken them to Texas, Colorado, New York, and Louisiana, and they were selected as artist fellows for the 2005 Hampden-Sydney Music Festival in Virginia, where they returned for a series of performances in 2008. They have twice performed in recital on the “Live from Hochstein” series, which were broadcast live on WXXI radio in Rochester, NY, and in 2014, they made their European debut in Paris. In 2017, they will make their Asian debut in a tour of China. A sought-after teacher, Dr. Chance maintains a prize-winning studio, and his students are frequently named winners and finalists in local, state, regional, and national competitions, including the 2009 Music Teachers National Association’s National Competition Finals in Atlanta. He currently serves on the faculties of several summer festivals including the New Orleans Piano Institute. Additionally, he has taught at the Samford University Piano and Chamber Music Institute, the Huntingdon College Piano Academy and the Tennessee Valley Music Festival, and in 2013, he was the Guest Artist for the University of Texas at Brownsville Summer Piano Academy. In demand as a clinician and adjudicator, he regularly presents workshops and lecture-performances on repertoire and pedagogy throughout the country. In 2013, he served as a guest clinician for both the Mississippi Music Teachers Association and Alabama Music Teachers Association state conferences. Additionally, Dr. Chance has presented at the 2016 and 2008 Music Teachers National Association Conferences, the 2008 College Music Society (CMS) National Conference in Atlanta, the 2009 CMS National Conference in Portland, Oregon, and the 2012 American Matthay Association Conference at Union University. He is a Past President of the Alabama Music Teachers Association and currently serves on the board of the Music Teachers National Association as Director of the Southern Division. He 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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Francis Crociata

has written and lectured on the lives and music of the Russian composer-pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff and the American composer-organist Leo Sowerby for nearly five decades. Having enjoyed the confidence and encouragement of Rachmaninoff’s cousin/sister-in-law and close confidant, Dr. Sophie Satin, Crociata’s writings on Rachmaninoff have appeared in a host of concert and recording annotations, music periodicals, the New York Times, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and, most prominently, in the booklet which accompanied The Complete Rachmaninoff, the five-volume-edition of the composer’s recorded legacy issued by RCA Records to coincide with the Rachmaninoff centennial in 1973. As a co-producer of the original project, his main contribution was the principal essay entitled “Sergei Rachmaninoff: Portrait of a Great and Modest Master” which was re-published in the first compact disc edition. He is also one of the co-producers of the CD collection Rachmaninoff Plays Symphonic Dances for the Marston Records label. Previously, he co-produced and wrote the principal essay for the 6-CD set Jorge Bolet: Ambassador from the Golden Age issued by Marston Records in observance of Bolet’s birth centennial in 2014. Crociata became president of the Leo Sowerby Foundation in 1993 and coordinated a nation-wide schedule of concerts and festivals spanning a period of 18 months in observance of Sowerby’s birth centennial in 1995. He produced, co-produced, or wrote the booklet annotations for 17 issued recordings of Sowerby’s music, wrote the cover essay for the May 1995 issue The American Organist and, as managing editor, oversaw the publication of 23 of Sowerby’s works, mostly first publications of secular and solo works, which appeared under the Sowerby Foundation’s imprint in cooperation with the Theodore Presser, Inc. During his years at the Eastman School of Music, he wrote the program material for the School's 80th Birthday celebration of the former Matthay student, Distinguished University Professor Cécile Staub Genhart, including the liner notes for the commemorative LP recording of a selection of her recordings produced for that occasion. Having studied organ with John Woolfolk and choral conducting with William Ferris, early in his life, Crociata was organist or organist-choir director at five Rochester Catholic churches. Having recently retired after 42 years in college/university advancement, he is now at work with friend and collaborator Gregor Benko, co-founder of the International Piano Archives, on a book which explores the relationship between Rachmaninoff and his friend and rival Josef Hofmann and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, which links them for all time.




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Nancy Hill Elton

began her musical studies with piano lessons from her mother. She holds the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in both piano and vocal performance from the University of Texas. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of South Carolina where she was the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including the school’s highest honor, the Music Achievement Award. There she studied piano with John Kenneth Adams and voice with Evelyn McGarrity. At the University of Texas, she studied piano with John Perry and voice with Glenda Maurice and Bethany Beardslee. Additional piano study was with Frank Mannheimer for three summers in Duluth, Minnesota. She also attended the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, where she studied piano with Jerome Lowenthal and accompanying and chamber music with Gwendolyn Koldolfsky. A versatile performer, Nancy has fashioned a dual career in piano and in voice. She has received critical acclaim as a piano concerto soloist and as solo recitalist, and has performed throughout the South and many other areas of the US. She has an extensive solo repertoire, but has also performed as a collaborative artist with many instrumentalists and singers over the years. Concerto performances have included Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto and Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganni, Grieg's Piano Concerto, and Beethoven's Choral Fantasy for the Musica Sacra Concert Series at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta and again recently with the Buckhead Youth Orchestra. Nancy’s past presentations for the Matthay Festival have included solo recitals at Kennesaw State University and at the University of Kansas, and lecture recitals on Schumann’s Carnaval, and the Elliot Carter Piano Sonata. A lyric soprano, Nancy has sung many leading operatic roles as well as art song recitals, and has accumulated an extensive oratorio repertoire. While she lived in Texas, she was sought by local composers for her pure tone and perfect pitch. She sang several premiers of songs by Kathryn Mischell and Priscilla Mclean. She is soprano soloist on a CD entitled Songs for Adults and Other Children (Capstone Records) by Priscilla McLean. A highlight of her vocal study was the honor of being selected through national taped auditions to study with famed soprano Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Walter Legge in a German Lieder Summer Workshop in Thunder Bay, Canada. She was also soprano soloist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for a Youth Concert, singing the famous aria “Una voce poco fa” under the direction of William Fred Scot. Nancy sang as soprano soloist with the Musica Sacra Concert Series of Atlanta for 12 years, She sang the leading role in Bizet’s youthful opera, Dr. Miracle, for an entire season with the Atlanta Opera Outreach Program throughout the city schools of Atlanta. Her most recent performances have included singing Liszt’s Three Songs from William Tell at the American Liszt Society Conference last year at the University of Oregon. Nancy has also branched out into singing the great standard jazz songs of the early twentieth century in retirement homes and other venues. She will present next fall at the GMTA conference with Georgia’s jazz pianist legend, Geoffrey Haydn of Georgia State University, singing songs of Gershwin, Kern, Carmichael, Arlen and many others. In addition to her large private studio, Nancy has held teaching positions at Georgia State University, Clayton State College and the University of West Georgia. She was recently invited to join the piano faculty of the University of Georgia where she teaches applied piano primarily to piano majors. Nancy is active as an adjudicator and clinician for many piano festivals and professional organizations throughout the Southeast and is Past-President of Atlanta Music Teachers Association. In 2005 she received the Georgia Music Teachers Association Teacher of the Year Award.


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Victoria Fischer Faw

received her musical education at Centenary College of Louisiana with teachers Constance Knox Carroll and Donald Rupert, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (musicology), the University of Texas at Austin (Danielle Martin and David Renner), and the Vienna Conservatory in Austria as a Rotary Foundation Fellow. In addition to performing and teaching a varied repertoire of the standard keyboard literature, she specializes in the music of Béla Bartók. A first-prize winner of the Bartók-Kabalevsky International Piano Competition, and recipient of the Regional Artist Award of the National Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, she is in demand as a performer, scholar and teacher. She is the author of a number of publications, including Bartók Perspectives (Oxford University Press), edited with Elliott Antokoletz and Benjamin Suchoff, a chapter contributed to A Bartók Companion (Cambridge University Press) and an article in the International Journal of Musicology. Her recordings include a solo CD of Bartók works entitled Evening in the Country. She is celebrating her thirtieth year on the music faculty at Elon University in Elon, North Carolina, where she teaches piano, piano pedagogy, chamber music, and mentors undergraduate research. She is active in MTNA and NCMTA, which was recognized as MTNA State Affiliate of the Year under her leadership in 2020. When not at Elon, she lives with her husband, Stephen Faw, in the mountains of North Carolina.


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Bradford Gowen

has received national attention since winning first prize in the 1978 Kennedy Center/Rockefeller Foundation International Competition for Excellence in the Performance of American Music. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music where he studied piano with Cecile Genhart and composition with Samuel Adler. He later studied piano with Leon Fleisher and with Dorothy Taubman. After winning the American music prize, Mr. Gowen made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall and recorded an album of American music for New World Records; in the spring of 1998 this recording, Exultation, was re-released as a CD with additional, newly recorded pieces included. On Memorial Day 1980, he performed Aaron Copland’s Piano Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the composer; the next year he performed several more times with that orchestra under Mstislav Rostropovich and Maxim Shostakovich. In January 1985 he performed the world premiere of Samuel Adler’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. In 1998 he played at the MTNA national convention, and he performed and gave a masterclass in the 70th birthday celebration for Leon Fleisher at the University of Kansas. In 2000, he gave the world premiere of the Piano Sonata of Judith Lang Zaimont. Mr. Gowen's numerous chamber music performances have included appearances at the Library of Congress Summer Chamber Festival. He has also appeared with cellist David Soyer, with the Kronos Quartet, and with the Guarneri Quartet. He has made many duo appearances with his wife, pianist Maribeth Gowen, including a 1997 Schubert bicentennial concert at the National Gallery of Art devoted to the composer’s four-hand works. He wrote for over twenty years for the Piano Quarterly and Piano & Keyboard, and he made a number of recordings for the Piano Quarterly. In 2002 he wrote a major series of three articles on twentieth-century American piano music for the London-based International Piano. Mr. Gowen has served as a judge for several international piano competitions, including the Kapell, the Gina Bachauer, and the Sydney, and he was a member of the Advisory Committee that created and ran the Seventeen Magazine/General Motors National Concerto Competition. Since 1981 he has been on the faculty at the University of Maryland. For three years he taught also at the Levine School of Music (Washington, DC), and in 2005 he joined the faculty of the Washington Conservatory of Music. He is one of the 48 pianists featured in Benjamin Saver's 1993 book The Most Wanted Piano Teachers in the USA.

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Kenneth Huber

is a critically acclaimed concert pianist who considers his extensive study in the Matthay tradition as the backbone of his musical training. Early piano study included five years with Shirley Shaffer, who had studied both with Matthay at his school in London and subsequently with Frank Mannheimer. At age fourteen Huber commenced five years of summer study with Mr. Mannheimer at his classes established in Duluth, Minnesota, in addition to lessons during Mannheimer’s visits to Washington, DC. He may likely be the youngest student to have studied with Mannheimer and is certainly one of a handful of today’s performing artists and pedagogues to share that second-generation direct connection to Tobias Matthay. He is a long-standing performing member of the American Matthay Association for Piano, has presented lectures and master classes at its Festivals, and served as a Board member. Mr. Huber is retired Senior Lecturer in Piano at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, where he taught from 1990 to 2013. He has performed extensively throughout the United States as recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist. He has appeared frequently on radio and television, and has been heard in collaboration with opera stars of the Metropolitan, New York City, Vienna, and La Scala Operas, as well as stars of Broadway musical theater. In more recent seasons he has appeared jointly with baritone David McFerrin in performances of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, and with his long-standing violin partner Brenda Brenner, Associate Professor of Music, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. A highlight of their appearances featured a lecture recital on Ives’ Fourth Sonata for a national convention of the College Music Society. In 1968 he began a four-year tour of duty as concert pianist with the United States Navy Band in Washington, D.C., serving as accompanist for the Navy Chorus in over 350 engagements including appearances at the White House and the State Department.

For twenty years Mr. Huber resided concurrently in New York City and his present home in Minneapolis, teaching and performing extensively in both cities. He has been active in music education since 1960 appearing as guest lecturer and clinician for many professional organizations. He has served on the faculties of Westminster Choir College, Augsburg College, and Virginia Intermont College, where he was also founder and Director of Celebrity Concerts. In addition to his engagement with the American Matthay Association, he frequently presented lectures and recitals for the Mannheimer Piano Festival, for which he was artistic director. He is often invited to adjudicate for national scholarship competitions and auditions, including the MTNA, the San Antonio International Keyboard Competition, and St. Paul's Schubert Club. He has also served two terms as panelist for the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Mr. Huber received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Indiana University where he studied with György Sebök, His study of the piano began at age four with his aunt, and in addition to his early study with Shaffer and Mannheimer, embraced four years privately with Leon Fleisher from 1969 to 1973. Mr. Huber's recitals have included the United States premiere of the Piano Sonata by Kenton Coe, including a performance at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. In 1981 he made his Weill Recital Hall collaborative debut and in 1997 appeared at Carnegie Hall as pianist with the Carleton Singers. His repertoire includes a broad range of music including much 20th-Century chamber literature from Schoenberg to Mackey. Maintaining residences in New York City and Minneapolis has afforded Mr. Huber the opportunity of active professional involvement both on the East Coast and the Midwest, where he often collaborated with soloists and chamber partners. In addition to his non-stop musical life, his hobbies include running, gourmet cooking, camping and hiking, the theater, and of course, travel.



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Jim Lees

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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Bettina Muehlenbeck

holds a Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Arts in Historical Musicology from the University of Bern, in Switzerland. She also completed graduate studies in the Magister Artium program at Heinrich Heine University of Duesseldorf, Germany, majoring in Philosophy with minors in British and American Literature, German Literature, and Musicology. In addition, she holds a B.Mus. in Piano Performance from the University of Wyoming. While pursuing her Ph.D., she was honored to receive a doctoral fellowship by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany in conjunction with Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation, which she held for three consecutive years. She is a published author with Cambridge University Press and academic publishing houses in Germany. In 2017 she published Sir William Sterndale Bennett’s travel diaries as a first-time critical edition with Wehrhahn Verlag in Hannover, Germany: William Sterndale Bennett – Von fernen Ländern und Menschen. Reisetagebücher 1836 bis 1842, as well as an invited contribution celebrating Bennett’s bicentenary, “On Musical Journeys – William Sterndale Bennett’s Diaries, 1836-1842," in Nineteenth-Century Music Review, Vol. 13, Cambridge University Press, 2016.












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Aiko Onishi

is one of America's most distinguished pianists and teachers. She was born in Tokyo and began her piano studies with her mother, Teiko, an accomplished pianist and a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music. After winning a Japanese national competition, she was invited to study at the Eastman School of Music with Cécile Staub Genhart, with whom she credits her foundation as a pianist. After earning her B.M. with Distinction, Performer's Certificate, and Artist's Diploma, she continued to study with Frank Mannheimer, with whom she worked extensively over the next sixteen years. During the winter of 1964-65, she had the privilege of studying with Dame Myra Hess in London. Miss Onishi has concertized and given lectures in over 60 cities in the United States and she has played in all of the major cities in Japan. For six years he was a professor at the Toho School of Music in Japan and for twenty-one years she served on the faculty of San Jose State University in California. During those years she produced many outstanding students, some of whom have won prizes at international competitions including the Leeds, Busoni, Casadesus, Kapell, Chopin, Munich, University of Maryland and the Washington International Bach Competition. She is the author of Pianism, a highly acclaimed pedagogical work which has been praised throughout the world.













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Janice Larson Razaq

is a former 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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Richard Reber

is a Professor Emeritus of Piano at the University of Kansas, where he has taught piano and piano literature since 1964. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he studied piano with Cécile Staub Genhart. In 1962 he received a Fulbright Scholarship for study at the Academy of Music in Vienna, Austria. He furthered his studies with Frank Mannheimer and in 1973 became a founding member of the Mannheimer Piano Festival Association. Mr. Reber is an active recitalist and is recognized as an outstanding lecture-recitalist in the field of twentieth-century piano music as well as the traditional repertoire. He presents recitals, lecture-recitals, and workshops throughout the United States and recently lectured and performed in Japan. His orchestral appearances include the premieres of two concertos, and he has performed with the Dorian Wind Quintet. Mr. Reber has received numerous research grants from the University of Kansas. His recording of intermediate level twentieth-century piano music, entitled Kanzona, was the result of one such grant.













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Neil Rutman

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." As a young man, pianist Neil Rutman studied with Aiko Onishi and distinguished himself as a top prize winner in several International Competitions including the Busoni, Kapell, Casadesus, Joanna Hodges, Concert Artist Guild, and International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. He has appeared in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Tokyo's Bunka Kaikan and the Schola Cantorum in Paris with concert tours of the United Kingdom, Europe, New Zealand, Japan, and the Persian Gulf and a 2020 invitation to give the closing recital at the World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia. Recordings include two Mozart Piano Concerti, an all-Poulenc CD with Emmy-Award winning actor Tony Randall providing the narration in The Story of Babar the Little Elephant, and his recent all-Chopin release on the Pro Musica label. Mr. Rutman has authored articles for the Piano Quarterly, The Piano Teacher, Clavier, and is a contributing author to the book Piano Masterpieces published by Oxford University Press. His best-selling book Stories, Images, and Magic from the Piano Literature was listed as the #3 Hot New Release on Amazon. A native of California and graduate of the Eastman School and Peabody Conservatory, Neil Rutman is Artist-in-Residence at the University of Central Arkansas. Since 2005 his students have won top prizes in the East-West Artist Auditions in New York City, the Clara Wells Competition, the Memphis Beethoven Club, and the Tulsa National Rotary Competition. While he was fortunate enough to have one lesson as a teenager with Frank Mannheimer, Mr. Rutman primarily studied with Cécile Genhart at the Eastman School and Ellen Mack at the Peabody Conservatory. He still occasionally plays for Aiko Onishi, whom he considers his primary artistic inspiration. At age nineteen Neil Rutman spent two years overseas as a non-paid volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Scotland. A former collegiate boxer, Neil Rutman also coaches the University of Central Arkansas Boxing Team and runs a Court Appointed boxing/mentoring program for teenagers in the Juvenile Court of Faulkner County. Recently, Mr. Rutman was awarded the Barack Obama Drum Major Award for his work with at-risk teens in Arkansas. In his spare time Mr. Rutman enjoys, swimming, boxing, working with youth, genealogical research, and hiking in the Ozark Mountains. For more information about Mr. Rutman, view his DVDs on YouTube or visit www.neilrutman.net.








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Stephen Siek

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, as well as a forthcoming 19-CD set honoring the Hungarian-American pianist Andor Foldes. His annotations for Decca include the recent Eloquence reissue of the complete Decca recordings of Dame Moura Lympany, and a forthcoming reissue of all the Deccas made by the American pianist Ruth Slenczynska. 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, and a scheduled course at Mesa Community College (AZ) in April of 2020. 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 at the University of Cincinnati. In May of 2019, he was named an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Currently a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University, he is also a professor emeritus of music at Wittenberg University in Ohio, and maintains a studio in Tempe, Arizona. Its website is www.pianosage.net/studio.html

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Dan Franklin Smith

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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Brad Snelling

is a librarian at The College of St. Scholastica where he has served on the faculty since 2005. As historian for Matinee Musicale—one of the country’s oldest concert series—Brad has written about past performances in Duluth by pianists such as Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Percy Grainger, Josef Lhevinne, Alfred Cortot, and Walter Gieseking. He has authored several articles on the city’s cultural history for the Duluth News Tribune, including an account of a recital given by Sergei Rachmaninoff at the city’s Armory in 1920. Brad has also presented research on the Dutch pianist Jan Chiapusso, a mentor to Rosalyn Tureck, who taught at The College of St. Scholastica from 1932 to 1934. Brad holds an undergraduate degree in the Humanities from the University of Kansas where he studied piano with Richard Reber. He has also earned master’s degrees from Indiana University and Stony Brook University where his paper, “Paul Robeson in Duluth: Connecting the Biographies of an Artist and a City” was the winner of the Deborah C. Hecht Award for Research. In March 2020, Brad will be co-coordinating a festival celebrating the works of the British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. In his spare time, Brad collects recordings of birdsong heard on the campus of The College of St. Scholastica.










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Barry Snyder

is a Professor Emeritus of Piano at the Eastman School of Music, and he currently serves on the faculty of Steinhardt College at New York University. He studied piano with Vladimir Sokoloff and Cécile Genhart, and accompanying with Brooks Smith. He was a member of the Eastman Trio from 1976-82, and the Meadowmount Trio from 1989-90. In 1966, he was a triple prize winner at the Van Cliburn International Competition. He was voted Mu Phi Epsilon Musician of the Year in 1987. His discography includes 32 solo, concerto, and chamber recordings on Bay City, Golden Crest, Mercury, Gasparo, Pro Arte, Pro Viva, Vox, Fun House, and Bridge Records. He has collaborated with noted singers and instrumentalists throughout the world, including Herman Prey, Ani Kavafian, Asako Urushihara, Jan DeGaetani, Ronald Leonard, Steven Doane, Zvi Zeitlin, Bonita Boyd, Francis Tursi, Julius Berger, Sylvia Rosenberg, Paul Tobias, Charles Castleman, James VanDemark, Dong Suk Kang, and with the Cleveland, Curtis, Purcell, and Composer’s quartets. He has performed and given master classes in Japan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, China, Australia, Europe, Poland, Russia, and South America. He has performed in festivals in Seattle, Aspen, Schwetzingen (Germany), Takefu (Japan), Vienna, Bechyne (Czech Republic), and Shenyang International (China). He has appeared as soloist with the Detroit, Houston, Atlanta, National, Montreal, Singapore, Krakow Radio/TV, Nagoya, and Japan Philharmonic Orchestras. He has also premiered works by Syd Hodkinson, Verne Reynolds, Toshio Hosokawa, David Liptak, Carter Pann, Alec Wilder, and John LaMontaine. He is listed in the book The Most Wanted Piano Teachers in the United States. He was awarded the Diapason d'Or for recordings of the complete cello and piano works of Fauré with Steven Doane. He received the Edward Peck Curtis Award for Teaching Excellence in 1975.


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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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Signe Sebo Zale

is the current treasurer of the American Matthay Association for Piano and is an active performer both as soloist and collaborator. A student of Cécile 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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