Keyboard

Joseph Di Piazza

Joseph Di Piazza earned the BM from De Paul University, and the MM and DMA degrees from the University of Wisconsin, where he also received a prestigious NDEA Fellowship. He has performed throughout the United States and Europe as recitalist, chamber player, and soloist with symphony orchestras and has participated in festivals at Interlochen, Eastern Music Festival, Chicago Spring Arts Festival, the University of Illinois, Methodist College, Woodstock Guild Series, and the Beethoven Festival in New York. In addition to numerous University Guest Artist Series, Di Piazza has performed on series at the Chicago Art Institute, Orchestra Hall, Cincinnati Art Museum, and the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Performing and Cultural Arts. He was also invited to give a recital on the Horowitz Steinway, which was touring the United States. 336-334-5444 or email: jadipiaz@uncg.edu

James Douglass

James Douglass, assistant professor of collaborative piano, has been involved in diverse genres including chamber music, vocal arts, opera, choral arts, symphonic repertoire, jazz, cabaret, and musical theater. He received the BM and MM in piano performance from the University of Alabama and the DMA in collaborative piano from the University of Southern California where he was a student of Dr. Alan L. Smith; additional studies with collaborative Anne Epperson and Martin Katz. While at USC he received a Koldofsky Fellowship and the Outstanding Keyboard Collaborative Arts award. Douglass has served on the faculties of Mississippi College, Occidental College LA, USC, and Middle Tennessee State University where he was coordinator of the collaborative piano degree program. In 2003 he began teaching in the summer study program AIMS (American Institue of Musical Studies) in Graz, Austria as the instructor of collaborative piano and a coach in the lieder program with Harold Heiberg. Performances as a collaborative pianist have included recitals and television/radio broadcasts across the United States and in Europe (France, Germany, Austria, Hungary); in master classes given by artists Dawn Upshaw, Carol Vaness, Vladimir Chernov, Norman Luboff, Paul Salamunovich, Natalie Hinderas, Leon Bates. Douglass is also active as a clinician and recently completed a recording with soprano Hope Koehler of John Jacob Niles songs which will be released on the Albany label in 2008. 336-256-1476 or email: j_douglass@uncg.edu

Andrew Harley

Andrew Harley began his musical studies at the famous Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, England. He continued his education at Oxford University, the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Southern California. Since emigrating to America, he has held positions at the University of California Los Angeles, the University of Southern California and the University of California Santa Barbara, where he was Head of Accompanying. In addition to these positions, he has also held numerous posts at a variety of summer schools. For five years, he was Director of Chamber Music for the International Institute for Young Musicians and more recently was Associate Faculty at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. He has been invited to join the faculty at both the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz as well as the University of Miami Summer Program in Salzburg. Dr. Harley has given solo and chamber music recitals in Canada, Europe, Scandinavia and the US and has recorded numerous CDs for the Centaur Label. Among his recent recital partners are Yana Deshkova (Concertmaster, Aalborg Symphony), James Dunham (Cleveland String Quartet), Romain Garioud (Prizewinner, Tchaikovsky Competition 2001), Roeland Gehland (Concertmaster, Arnheim Symphony), Carolyn Hove (Solo English Horn, Los Angeles Philharmonic), Elisabeth Kufferath (Concertmaster, Bamberg Symphony), Gordon Hunt (Guest Principal Oboe, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra), Joel Krosnick (Juilliard String Quartet), Aida-Carmen Soanea (1st Prize winner, Valentino-Bucchi International Viola Competition) and Atle Sponberg (Concertmaster, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra). In 2005, he gave his Carnegie Hall debut and in March 2007, he made his Washington debut at The Library of Congress. He recently gave recitals and master classes at Indiana University - Bloomington and the Royal Northern College of Music in England. In July 2007, he returned from Düsseldorf, where he was the featured pianist at the Kamp-Lintfort International Chamber Music Festival, a position he has held for the past three years. The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung recently described him as “a soloist who understands how to blend within an ensemble with excellence, yet without subjugating himself. Pearls of gold met with a diamond.” Future engagements include invitations to give classes at The New England Conservatory, The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Dr. Harley is currently an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, where he serves as Director of Accompanying and Piano Chamber Music. 336-334-5296 or email: a_harley@uncg.edu

Robert Burns King

Robert Burns King, a native of South Carolina, is Organist-Choirmaster of First Presbyterian Church in Burlington, North Carolina, Instructor of Organ at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and University Organist at Elon University. He was graduated from Furman University with degrees in Organ and French, and holds the Master of Sacred Music degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he studied organ with Vernon deTar of the Juilliard School. As a Fulbright Scholar, King studied in Paris with Jean Langlais and Maurice Duruflé and was the first American to win the Prix de Virtuosité from the Paris Schola Cantorum. He has also studied with Michael Schneider in Cologne Germany. King has performed in Germany, France, Italy, Scotland, and Portugal, and this past summer played an organ recital at Saint Paul's Cathedral in London. He has appeared with the North Carolina Symphony and at regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists. 336-334-5030 or email: rking@netpath.net

George Kiorpes

George Kiorpes holds the BM degree, Artist Diploma, and MM from Peabody Conservatory, and the DMA from Boston University. His teachers have included Frederick Petrich, Austin Conradi, Julio Esteban, and Bela Nagy. He has also been awarded numerous awards and prizes, including Peabody's May Garrettsom Evans and Bach-Horstmeier Scholarships and the coveted Paul Thomas Prize for Outstanding Pianistic Achievement. Kiorpes has participated in solo, ensemble, and concerto performances throughout the United States and in the Far East and has participated in convention programs at the state, regional and national level for numerous professional organizations. Concerto collaborations include conductors Reginald Stewart, Arthur Fiedler, David Moskowitz and Herbert Hazelman. In 2002, he was the recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award in the UNCG School of Music. He has published articles in many national periodicals and for four years was editor of The North Carolina Music Teacher. His compositions for piano have been published by Ditson, Willis, and Kjos music publishers. 336-334-4651 or email: gakiorpe@uncg.edu

John Salmon - click for web site

John Salmon on the UNCG piano faculty since 1989, has distinguished himself as both a classical and jazz artist. Critics have cited his “mastery and virtuosity” (La Suisse, Geneva, Switzerland), called him a “tremendous pianist” (El País, Madrid, Spain), and praised his ability to “set his audience on fire” (News & Courier, Charleston, South Carolina). He has appeared at the International Bartók Festival in Hungary, the Festival Internacional de Música del Mediterráneo in Spain, and at festivals across the U.S. His performances have been broadcast on the national radio stations of Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Moldova, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, and the Ukraine; and on National Public Radio's “Performance Today,” WFMT in Chicago, and WNYC in New York. Prizes include the Premio Jaén, as well as awards from the Busoni and Maryland competitions. He holds the Solistendiplom from the Freiburg (Germany) Hochschule für Musik, the Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The University of Texas. Salmon has championed piano pieces by many contemporary composers, especially Dave Brubeck who dedicated two pieces to Salmon. His two compact discs of Brubeck's piano music (Phoenix PHCD 130; and Naxos 8.559212) have received widespread critical acclaim. 336-334-5431 or email: jcsalmon@uncg.edu

Paul Stewart

Paul Stewart is currently Chair of the Keyboard Division at UNCG. He earned the BM and the BMEd degrees from Indiana University, the MM degree from the University of Illinois, and the DM degree from Florida State University. His teachers have included Walter Bricht, Ray Dudley, Howard Karp, and Leonard Mastrogiacomo. Stewart has served as NCMTA State President and Local State Convention Chairman. At the National Level of MTNA, he has served as Southern Division President, American Music Program Chair, and National Convention Chair. He is currently a member of the MTNA Board of Directors and National MTNA President. As a winner of the Bryan Competition, Stewart was the featured piano soloist with the North Carolina Symphony on four occasions. In June 2000, he premiered “Jupiter's Moons,” a multi-movement work for solo piano by Judith Lang Zaimont. He is an active solo performer and has given numerous regional and national concerts and piano pedagogy sessions featuring American Ragtime music. 336-334-5380 or email: pbstewar@uncg.edu

Andrew Willis - click for web site

Andrew Willis is recognized for his performances on historical and modern pianos in the United States and abroad. He has recorded a wide variety of solo and chamber repertoire for Claves, Albany, Centaur, Newport Classics, and CRI records. The New York Times called his recording of Beethoven's Op. 106 a 'Hammerklavier' of rare stature. At UNCG, where he joined the piano faculty in 1994, Willis serves as Artistic Director of the biennial Focus on Piano Literature, at which he premiered Martin Amlin's Sonata No. 7 in 2000. Willis holds the BM in Piano from The Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Mieczyslaw Horszowski, the MM in Accompanying from Temple University, where he studied with George Sementovsky and Lambert Orkis, and the DMA in Historical Performance from Cornell University, where he studied with Malcolm Bilson. For a number of years, his multifaceted musical career was based in Philadelphia, where he served as keyboardist of The Philadelphia Orchestra for several seasons. He has also taught at several colleges and universities and at Tanglewood. 336-334-5508 or email aswillis@uncg.edu homepage

Inara Zandmane

Born in the capital of Latvia, Riga, Inara Zandmane started to play piano at the age of six. Ms. Zandmane holds BM and MM from Latvian Academy of Music, MM in piano performance from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and DMA in piano performance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. She has been the staff accompanist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro since 2003, performing up to fifty recitals per year. Ms. Zandmane is frequently invited to serve as an official accompanist at national competitions and conferences, among them the North American Saxophone Alliance conference and the MTNA National competition since 2004. Ms. Zandmane has been presented in solo recitals in St. Paul, Kansas City, Cleveland, St. Louis, and New York, as well as in many Republics of former Soviet Union. In April 2000, she was invited to perform at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. Inara Zandmane has appeared as a soloist with the Latvian National Orchestra, Liepaja Symphony, Latvian Academy of Music Student Orchestra, SIU Symphony, and UMKC Conservatory Symphony and Chamber orchestras. She has performed with various chamber ensembles at the International Chamber Music Festivals in Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Helsinki (Finland), and Norrtelje (Sweden). Ms. Zandmane has collaborated with such musicians as Martin Storey, Paul Coletti, Branford Marsalis, Michel Debost, Kelly Burke, Steven Stusek, and Susan Fancher. For a few last years, Inara Zandmane has worked together with Latvian composer Peteris Vasks. She has given Latvian premieres of his two latest piano pieces, Landscapes of the Burnt-out Earth and The Spring Music, and recorded the first of them on the Conifer Classics label. Solo recordings include the piano works by Maurice Ravel, recorded together with her husband, Vincent van Gelder, and the complete Sonatas for piano by Alexander Scriabin. She also can be heard on various chamber music CDs. 336-256-0217 or email: I_zandma@uncg.edu