Summer Workshops in Piano Pedagogy
August 8-12, 2011
Please join us for an extraordinary week of sessions by nationally-renowned presenters.
Special Guests:
Bruce Berr
Melody Bober
Katherine Faricy
Andrew Hisey
Scott McBride Smith
Michelle Sisler
Bruce Berr
An independent piano teacher for many years, Bruce Berr has also served on the faculties of numerous institutions including Washington University in St. Louis, and Roosevelt University in Chicago where he taught piano and was coordinator of piano pedagogy for thirteen years. He has travelled extensively throughout the country to present workshops and master classes at national conferences and universities, and for dozens of professional teacher associations.
He has been associate editor for Keyboard/Clavier Companion magazine since 1997, and his highly popular column on personal observations, “ad lib,” appears regularly on the last page of American Music Teacher magazine.
Dr. Berr is also a composer and arranger of educational piano music. He served as a consultant, composer, and clinician for Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation's piano method series for children, and has numerous compositions and arrangements with them. He also has two books of compositions with FJH Music Company, At the Seashore, Vols. I and II.
Bruce Berr received his degrees in piano and pedagogy from Washington University in St. Louis and Northwestern University.
For more information, please visit BruceBerr.com.
Melody Bober
As a composer, Melody enjoys creating motivational piano pieces that foster her students' understanding and love of music. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana with a bachelor's degree in music education. She later received a master of arts degree in piano performance from Minnesota State University, Moorhead. Melody credits much of her success to her influential teachers who include Joel Shapiro and Andrew Froelich (piano), Mary Hoffman (music education), and Tony Caramia (jazz).
An active church pianist and accompanist, Melody has also held the position of church music director. In addition to teaching piano in her private studio, Melody's music-teaching experience includes 20 years of public school and two years at the university level. A dynamic clinician and innovative composer, Melody is in great demand at conventions and workshops for piano teachers across North America. She resides in Minnesota with her husband Jeff.
Katherine Faricy
Katherine Faricy received a BME degree from Oberlin Conservatory and an MFA in piano performance from the University of Minnesota. She also studied privately for four years with the world-renowned interpreter of Mozart, Madame Lili Kraus, and coached in piano ensemble with Vitya Vronsky of the famed Vronsky and Babin duo-piano team. Faricy began teaching at the University of St. Thomas in 1975, where she initiated degree and certificate programs in piano pedagogy, and continues to teach undergraduate and graduate piano as well as graduate courses in performance practices and advanced piano pedagogy. Faricy is in frequent demand as an adjudicator and clinician for local teachers’ organizations, state music teachers conventions throughout the USA, MTNA national conventions, and most recently at the World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia. A frequent recitalist, she has performed in Carnegie Recital Hall, been heard in many radio broadcasts on MPR, and has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras. Faricy is author of two books, Artistic Pedal Technique: Lessons for Intermediate and Advanced Pianists published by Frederick Harris Music, and Pedaling ~ Colors in Sound: Lessons and Repertoire for Elementary Piano Students.
Website: http://www.pedaling-colorsinsound.com
Andrew Hisey
Andrew Hisey holds degrees in piano from Wilfrid Laurier University and from The University of Michigan. A native of Canada, he was a member of the piano faculty at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in Ohio from 1994 to 2005. Dr. Hisey was the 1988 Ontario Young Artist Competition winner (Canada) and has performed throughout that province and in many locations across the midwestern United States. He won the University of Michigan's graduate concerto competition in 1992 and recently soloed with the Oberlin Wind Ensemble in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. He has performed the complete cycle of Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, by Dmitri Shostakovich. Hisey is in frequent demand as adjudicator, lecturer and performer, and his workshops have been enthusiastically received by local piano teacher groups, and at state and national conventions. He is one of the founding directors of the National Group Piano and Piano Pedagogy Forum, is a member of Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music College of Examiners, and serves as series editor for the Composer Editions series from the Frederick Harris Music Company.
Scott McBride Smith
An internationally recognized authority on piano teaching, Scott McBride Smith is co-author of the widely used college text The Well-Tempered Keyboard Teacher. Dr. Smith is Associate Editor of the magazine Clavier Companion, and was Contributing Editor for the magazine Piano & Keyboard. His articles have appeared in Piano Guild Notes and The American Music Teacher.
Scott McBride Smith has given workshops for teachers' groups throughout the U.S., in Asia and South America. He has given workshops for the National Association for Gifted Children, MTNA National Conferences, and National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy. He was featured clinician at the 2003 European Piano Teachers Association-UK conference in Winchester and the 2005 Victorian Music Teacher Association (Australia) Summer School in Melbourne.
Dr. Smith has served as Visiting Professor at the Bela Bartok Conservatory in Lima, Peru; at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts; at the Royal Conservatory of Music; and in Taiwan, sponsored by the International Piano Teaching Foundation. He is a teacher of many prize-winning piano students, is Vice-President, Academic for the Novus Via Music Group (publishers of the acclaimed series American Popular Piano), and President of the International Institute for Young Musicians. Dr. Smith received his Masters of Music, Magna cum Laude, from the University of Kansas. His doctorate is from the University of Southern California.
Michelle Sisler
Michelle is the founder and owner of Keys to Imagination, a resource for teachers adding technology to their labs or for students adding music technology at home. She has presented technology sessions at The National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, Music Teachers National Association conference, and various state conferences and local groups. She has written technology articles for Keyboard Companion, a series of technology articles in Clavier, and reviews in American Music Teacher. Michelle has co-authored Studio Makeover, Technology “Addition”® and Double Click Curriculum®. She is also a member of the technology committee for The National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy.
Michelle’s use of technology and creative teaching materials have gained her national recognition and a unique place at the forefront of music education. Her materials allow teachers to help students become explorers in their journey to expand learning music, theory, music history and new ways students and teachers can use technology to learn and teach music in a fun and interactive way. Michelle currently lives in Owatonna, MN with her husband, Kevin and their twins, Brandon and Brianna.
