Matthay Festival 2022
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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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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Wendy Freeland

joined the music faculty of Jacksonville State University in 2002. As Professor of Music she teaches applied piano, class piano, piano ensemble, accompanying and music history for graduate students. Hailing from West Virginia, she completed her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in piano performance at the University of South Carolina under the tutelage of John Kenneth Adams. Her Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance was earned at Florida Atlantic University where she studied with Heather Coltman and Judith Burganger, and was the first music student to complete both the academic and performance honors programs. She is the recipient of several performance and scholarship awards, and was named University Scholar by Florida Atlantic University. Dr. Freeland enjoys performing as soloist and collaborative artist. Performances in recent years include Carlos Franzetti’s Four Pieces for Virtuosi for the Alabama Music Teachers Association and the National Flute Convention. With Dr. Melody Ng she performed Rachmaninoff’s Suite for Two Pianos, No. 2, and Mozart’s Concerto in E-flat major for Two Pianos. Rachmaninoff’s Suite for Two Pianos, No. 1, was one of the works featured in a program of works for two pianos with Dr. Nancy Elton at the 2019 American Matthay Association Festival. Dr. Freeland has performed with instrumentalists, vocalists, and choral groups, and has extensive experience working in opera. She regularly performs at Jacksonville State University, and has performed in Sweden, Italy, Korea and Serbia. Understanding music of the twentieth century through a cultural context has been Dr. Freeland’s research interest. Her doctoral dissertation titled "An Examination of the Promenades for Piano by Francis Poulenc" revealed the influences that shaped this composition. Her desire for the public to understand piano music by considering aspects of art and society led to her presentation and performance of this work at the World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia in 2011. Jacksonville State University has granted her the annual "Faculty Research Award" several times in recognition of her performances and presentations. Her broad perspective of the function of music and love for sharing it makes her an attentive and enthusiastic teacher who has worked with students in West Virginia, Florida, South Carolina and Alabama. In addition to performing and teaching, Dr. Freeland is active in other musical pursuits. She actively adjudicates piano competitions and auditions, and enjoys giving master classes and presentations, such as “Technique: A Sound Approach,” to such groups as the Atlanta Music Teachers Association. Dr. Freeland organizes the annual Foothills Piano Festival on the campus of JSU, coordinates the JSU Music Academy, and is a Past President of the Alabama Music Teachers Association. She is a member of Phi Kappa Lambda, Sigma Alpha Iota, the American Matthay Association, Music Teachers National Association, and the World Piano Teachers Association.



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Mary Pendleton Hoffer

is the immediate past president of the American Matthay Association and she currently serves as editor of the Matthay News. She 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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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

is currently Professor of Music and Humanities at Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania, as well as the university's Director of Global Learning. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Arts in Historical Musicology from the University of Bern in Switzerland, and she also completed Graduate Studies in the Magister Artium degree program at Heinrich Heine University of Duesseldorf, majoring in Philosophy with minors in British and American Literature, German Literature, and Musicology. In addition, she holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Wyoming. While pursuing her Ph.D., she was a recipient of the prestigious 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. Dr. Muehlenbeck is a published scholar with an impressive array of academic publishers: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge), Ut Orpheus Edizioni (Bologna), Wehrhahn Verlag (Hannover), Georg Olms Verlag (Hildesheim), and Laaber Verlag (Laaber), among others. In 2017, she published the heretofore unseen diaries of William Sterndale Bennett in a critical edition with Wehrhahn Verlag: William Sterndale Bennett – Von fernen Ländern und Menschen: Reisetagebücher 1836 bis 1842. An invited contribution to Nineteenth-Century Music Review (Vol. 13), Cambridge University Press, celebrating Bennett’s bicentenary appeared in 2016. In 2020, Dr. Muehlenbeck published on the relationship between Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and William Sterndale Bennett in Ad Parnassum – A Journal of Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Instrumental Music (Vol. 18 – No. 35), Ut Orpheus Edizioni. Current projects encompass the historico-critical edition of some of Sir William Sterndale Bennett’s piano music on one hand, while on the other an analysis and interpretation of the Eric Mandell Collection of Jewish Music at Gratz College in Philadelphia.







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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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John Perry

holds an international reputation as a distinguished pianist and as one of the world's great teachers. A Minnesota native, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Eastman School of Music where he was a student of Cécile Genhart, while during the summers, he continued his work with the eminent Frank Mannheimer. A recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, he continued studies in Europe for four years where he worked with Wladyslav Kedra, Polish concert artist and professor at the Akademie für Musik in Vienna, and Carlo Zecchi, renowned conductor, pianist, and head of the piano department at the Santa Cecilia Academy of Music in Rome. Mr. Perry has won numerous awards, including the highest prizes in both the Busoni and Viotti international piano competitions, and special honors at the Marguerite Long International Competition in Paris. Since then, he has performed extensively throughout Europe and North America to great critical acclaim. Also a respected chamber musician, Mr. Perry has collaborated with some of the finest instrumentalists in the world. He also enjoys an international reputation as a teacher, presenting master classes throughout the world. He is often a jury member at some of the most prestigious international piano competitions, and his students have been prize winners in most major competitions. They include two first-prize winners in the Rubinstein, four first-prize winners in the Music Teacher's National Association national competition, and first-prize winners in the Naumburg National Chopin competition, the Cleveland Competition, the Beethoven Foundation competition, the Federated Music Clubs, the YKA, AMSC, and YMF competitions, as well as finalists in the Chopin International in Warsaw, the Van Cliburn, the Queen Elisabeth, the Leeds, the Dublin, the Busoni, the Viotti and the Three Rivers competitions. John Perry is professor at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, professor of piano at Mason Gross Schoo of the Arts, Rutgers University, and Professor Emeritus of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. In addition, he recently founded a music school, the John Perry Academy of Music in Los Angeles, where he serves as Artistic Director. During the summer he is artist professor at the Lake Como International Piano Academy, the Banff Center in Alberta, Canada, the Sarasota Music Festival in Florida, the Orford Music Festival in Quebec, the Morningside Music Bridge Program in Calgary, Alberta, the Internationaler Klaviersommer Cochem, Germany, the International Music Festival in Perugia, Italy, the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy, Montecito International Music Festival in Santa Barbara, and the John Perry Academy Summer Piano Festival in California. In January he is main guest artist at the Sydney Piano Festival in Australia. His recordings are available on the Telefunken, Musical Heritage Society, CBC, ACA and Fox labels.


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Janice Larson Razaq

is a former president of the American Matthay Association. She appears nationally in recitals including performances on the “Live from Landmark” series on Minnesota Public Radio, on the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series from the Chicago Public Library, broadcast live on WFMT Radio, and on KOHM Radio in Lubbock, Texas. She has been a featured recitalist/lecturer with the Mannheimer Piano Festival at the University of Minnesota in Duluth several times, and her performances there have been rebroadcast on Minnesota Public Radio. Her performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Elgin (Illinois) Symphony Orchestra was acclaimed by critics as “powerful and dazzling”. Dr. Razaq makes frequent appearances as Artist-in-Residence in concerto performances with the Harper Symphony Orchestra in Illinois and has also played with the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra in Duluth. Solo appearances have been at colleges and universities in Illinois, Texas, Minnesota, Georgia, Arizona, Tennessee and North Carolina. She has performed for the American Matthay Association for Piano several times. “Let’s Understand Tobias Matthay’s Relaxation Technique” was the title of her presentation for a recent Canadian Federation Music Teachers Association national conference in Halifax. As a young pianist, Dr. Razaq received second place in the Women’s Association of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra Competition. A Fulbright grant took her to the Royal Academy of Music in London to study for three years with Matthay pupil Hilda Dederich. She received the Licentiate Diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Academy. Her London debut recital at Wigmore Hall received excellent reviews. She was an award winner in the Canals International Competition in Barcelona. Dr. Razaq received her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Piano Performance from Texas Tech University, studying with William Westney; a Master of Music Degree from the University of Illinois, studying with Stanley Fletcher; and a Bachelor of Music Degree with Distinction from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Cécile Genhart. Early studies were with Ruth Rogers, and lessons for several summers were with Frank Mannheimer. Both Ruth Rogers and Frank Mannheimer took turns residing in the Duluth home which Mr. Mannheimer owned. Dr. Janice Larson Razaq is a past President of the Illinois State Music Teachers Association, and past Director of the East Central Division of MTNA. She is Director of Keyboard Studies at William Rainey Harper College in Palatine, Illinois, and has also taught at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. Dr. Razaq presents lecture/demonstration/recitals for the Illinois State Music Teachers Conferences. Recently she gave sessions entitled “Teaching Piano Should Imply Teaching Injury Prevention in Practice and Performance” and “The Sometimes Misunderstood Relaxation Technique of Tobias Matthay”. She gives many lecture demonstrations for local area groups of ISMTA, and for the American Matthay Association. Dr. Razaq is an esteemed adjudicator as well as college professor and private teacher. She plays chamber music with CSO members and was a featured soloist at Stringfest held at Illinois State University. She is a published feature article author for the late Keyboard Companion magazine, and has written book reviews for the American Music Teacher magazine.


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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." He has performed in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Tokyo's Bunka Kaikan, and the Schola Cantorum in Paris. As a young man, Mr. Rutman distinguished himself as a top prize winner in several international competitions including the Busoni, Kapell, Casadesus, Joanna Hodges, Concert Artist Guild, and a first prize for his performance of the Goldberg Variations at the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and for Artistic Excellence, and from the Astral Foundation of Philadelphia. Among his recordings are two Mozart Piano Concerti with the Academy of London Orchestra, an all-Poulenc CD with Emmy-Award winning actor Tony Randall providing the narration in The Story of Babar the Little Elephant, and his all-Chopin release on the Pro Musica label. Mr. Rutman has authored articles for the Piano Quarterly, The Piano Teacher, Clavier, and his 2016 book Stories, Images, and Magic from the Piano Literature was listed as #3 Hot New Release on Amazon. A native of San Francisco, Mr. Rutman had his formative training under the musical guidance of Aiko Onishi. He later graduated from the Eastman School of Music and the Peabody Conservatory, where he worked with Cécile Genhart, Ellen Mack, and Leon Fleisher. Mr. Rutman is Artist-in-Residence at the University of Central Arkansas, where his students have won top prizes in numerous competitions including the East-West Artist Auditions in New York City, the Clara Wells International Competition, and the MTNA National Competition. An amateur boxer by avocation, Neil Rutman is the coach for the University of Central Arkansas Boxing Team. He is also a volunteer Probation Officer and mentor for juvenile offenders in Faulkner County and was one of 30 Americans to be awarded the Martin Luther King-President Barack Obama Service Award for his work with at risk youth in his county.










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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 the paperback and Kindle versions were published by the H. W. Marston Press in December of 2020. His highly acclaimed 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), the Piano Journal of the European Piano Teachers' Association, and Emeritus Voices, a journal published by Arizona State University. 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, and a 19-CD set comprising all the DG recordings of the Hungarian-American pianist Andor Foldes. He has also annotated several titles for Decca, including the recent Eloquence reissue of the complete Decca recordings of Dame Moura Lympany, and a recent reissue of all the Decca recordings of the American pianist Ruth Slenczynska. His annotated collection of the complete solo recordings of the British pianist Cyril Smith was released by the APR label this past September, and collections devoted to Wilhelm Kempff are scheduled for release later in early in 2022: a set of electrical recordings for APR, and a 3-CD set of all the pianist's acoustical recordings for Marston Records. His own 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 work in Chicago in July of 2013, and recent courses at both Mesa Community College (AZ) and Arizona State University. Currently a Faculty Associate at ASU, in the last several years has also taught nearly a dozen courses on the piano and American music. 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. A professor emeritus of music at Wittenberg University in Ohio, he also 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 his spare time, Brad collects photographs and recordings of birds found on the campus of The College of St. Scholastica.













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Nicholas Susi

is the winner of the college division of the 2017 Clara Wells Fellowships. Described in The WholeNote as “an innovative musician and aggressive thinker with a gift for keyboard brilliance,” he enjoys a multifaceted career living out his deep love for music. His varied activities in recent seasons have included solo and concerto performances, masterclasses, lectures, community outreach events, and competition adjudication. His artistry has been recognized through top prizes in national and international piano competitions such as the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Award, the Mu Phi Epsilon International Competition, and Klavierfestival Rösrath, while his research has been awarded prestigious grants from such organizations as the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD), Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation, and Legacy Foundation for the Arts. These and other grants enabled him to travel, study, and perform music across Europe; the experiences of researching Beethoven in Bonn, Debussy in Paris, and Mozart in Vienna have been central to his development as a musician and to his cosmopolitan understanding of musical styles. Other noteworthy appearances include two concerts for the Princess von Hohenzollern at her castle in Namedy, Germany, his semifinalist recital at the TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, The Netherlands during the 2014 International Franz Liszt Piano Competition, and concerto solos with such orchestras as the Omaha Symphony, Wiener Residenz Orchester, St. Louis Chamber Orchestra, and Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City. His debut recording, Scarlatti Now, was released in late 2016 to critical acclaim; in addition to nationwide radio airplay, the disc was featured on the prestigious Critics’ Choice list (2017) of the American Record Guide and was chosen as a 1st place winner of The American Prize in 2018. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Susi is currently based out of Duluth, Minnesota, where he is Assistant Professor of Music at The College of St. Scholastica. In addition to teaching private lessons in piano, Dr. Susi also coordinates the class piano program and teaches courses in music theory. He 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 Zena Ilyashov, Jack Winerock, Nina Tichman, and Arthur Greene.





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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 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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