Verena Abufaiad
The Guia Prático for Solo Piano by Heitor Villa-Lobos: Performance and Pedagogical Approach

In this session, the author will provide performance demonstrations of selected pieces from the Guia Prático, Álbuns Para Piano that highlight facets of Villa-Lobos’ compositional style—melodies crafted from Brazilian folk tunes and lively, syncopated rhythms—their wide range of difficulty, and a variety of technical challenges. Pianists and pedagogues are invited to explore this compelling and fresh twentieth-century repertoire that reflects the culture of Brazil.

Nancy Bachus
Clara Schumann—A 21st Century Role Model

Since 2019 is the 200th anniversary of Clara Schumann’s birth, it is a good time to look at her life and career in greater depth. A leading pianist of the 19th century, wife of Robert Schumann, and mother of eight children, she maintained her performing career (over 1300 concerts), was a composer herself, edited all of Robert’s piano music, and was a sought-after, highly successful piano teacher as well.

Kayia Baker and Amy Seibert
Teaching Piano in Urban Environments

St. Louis based non-profit Pianos for People is trying a radical new idea: to explore what happens when you give away free pianos and free piano lessons to children in an urban environment. In this presentation, Pianos for People staff will explore the intersection of music and privilege and reinforce the vital role of piano teachers by featuring several case studies of families directly impacted by its mission.

Lisa Bastien
The Bastien Family: A Tribute to Jane and Jim Bastien 

Jane and Jim Bastien made a difference in countless lives with their teaching, writing, and performing. With more than 500 publications to their credit, and books translated into 16 languages, Jane and Jim revolutionized how piano is taught. As a tribute to them and the countless students they inspired, we’ll take a step back to hear how this remarkable couple met and began their storied careers as innovative piano teachers and pedagogues.

Beth Bauer and Scott Price
Teaching Repertoire to Special Learners: Practical Solutions

The needs of special learners present challenges for the piano teacher in choosing and teaching repertoire at all levels. Outlines of practical learning routines for learning new repertoire, information on managing appropriate behaviors, step-by-step breakdown of learning procedures for teaching music reading, finger numbers, counting, technique, and artistry will be included and explained through video demonstrations of students during lessons. Management of performance events will be included. Questions from attendees are welcome.

Gail Berenson and Linda Cockey
Bringing 1990's Wellness Strategies into the Present: Looking at their Relevance from Today's Perspective

The inaugural National Conference on Piano Pedagogy’s Committee on the Prevention of Medical Problems published the results of its first project in the 1990-1991 NCPP Proceedings. Part of that project consisted of creating a comprehensive list of ten essential wellness strategies. For this presentation, two of the original committee members will speak to their continued relevance for today’s independent and collegiate teachers, updating these strategies from the perspective of what we know in 2019.

Nancy O'Neill Breth
Goodbye Tears and Tantrums: A Fresh Look at Practicing

Every good teacher knows how to turn a piano lesson into a treat. But how many of us know how to make daily practicing even half as much fun as the lesson? This presentation provides the tools to do that, in the form of 23 tips that make “boring” practice sessions a thing of the past. Each tip is short, clearly expressed and adaptable to the particular challenges any piano student faces. Using these tips saves precious lesson time and trains students to grow ever more independent from their teachers.

Susan Bruckner
Music and Neuroscience: Towards a Return to the Core Curriculum

Why is music such an exploding field of study in neuroscience labs around the world? I set out to find answers to this question in an eight-month sabbatical project, throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. I was surprised, inspired and filled with new hope for the return of music to its rightful place in the curriculum of our public schools. I will share highlights of what I learned from interviews with twenty-four renowned music neuroscientists.

Cole Burger
Beginning and Early Intermediate Piano Music by Female Composers

This presentation will feature original, beautiful, and fun pieces by female composers for beginning and early intermediate students of all ages. Teachers will rekindle their love for music and teaching and be inspired to share music with students that “no one else plays.” Come expand the horizons of both you and your students by learning more about this great music.

Alicia Caicedo-Cavazos
The Health Aware Piano Student: Suggestions for Health Information Delivery in University Music Programs

What kind of health information is being delivered to college students? How it is typically distributed? Is this information readily accessible? A discussion on improving health awareness in college piano students and minimize playing-related disorders impact.

Nicola Cantan
The Five Foundations of Successful Preschool Piano Teaching

Have your youngest piano students got the wiggles? You may be missing one of these five cornerstones of great preschool piano teaching. Expand your teaching toolkit and learn how you can be really successful teaching these tiny fingers to play by with effective games, appropriate technique and a good dollop of parent education.

João Paulo Casarotti and Stella Sick
Online Piano Lessons 301: Teaching Demonstration - Mastering the Medium

Join us for a long distance lesson demonstration to observe and discuss elements and successful strategies, unique to the long distance lesson environment and to witness and address teacher and student specific experiences.

Carla Davis Cash, Brooke Trapp, and Qin Ling
Effects of Recreational Piano Instruction on Brain Function in Adult Novices

Learning a new instrument is a stimulating and enjoyable activity that engages the brain in unique ways and is considered an effective tool in helping to maintain healthy cognitive skills. In this session, we discuss how a 6-week beginning recreational piano course can impact adults’ learning and wellbeing. Using fMRI data, we examine how neurophysical effects related to increased motor coordination and fluency might be connected to the satisfaction and enjoyment reported by adult beginners.

Ruby Chou and Margaret M. Young
Bridging the Gap: Designing Keyboard Skills Curricula for Future Music Majors

Piano study is a stumbling block for many music majors, but it does not have to be that way! Our discussion, based on responses to a survey administered to first year undergraduate music majors, addresses the skills they want to learn as well as those that enable them to succeed in the future. Our session extends the research towards developing a bridge course to use with future music majors in private or group learning settings.

Leah Claiborne
Leveling Piano Music By Black Composers

Leah Claiborne will discuss and highlight the pedagogical benefits of incorporating piano music by Black composers into the standard teaching repertoire. By leveling selected piano works by Black composers, Dr. Claiborne will examine the musical and technical challenges presented in these pedagogically fruitful pieces that have been left out of the canon.

Michael Clark
Reflecting What's Right in Your Playing: An Introduction to Mirror Practice

Explore mirror practice: taking a passage written for one hand and playing its mirror image in the other. Discover the scientifically demonstrated benefits of this technique and learn how to incorporate it into your practice.

Linda Cockey, Vanessa Cornett-Murtada, Jessica Johnson, Carol Leone, James Litzelman, Lesley McAllister, and Brenda Wristen
Interactive Wellness Café

The NCKP Wellness Committee will share essential wellness information in an interactive environment designed to help teachers become aware of wellness issues and how to promote healthy music-making for themselves and their students. The café will offer teachers a holistic approach to wellness. The CAFÉ MENU will consist of yoga/exercise for pianists, hands-on experience with the alternatively-sized keyboard, mindful practicing and managing performance anxiety, and preventive strategies for avoiding injuries.

Michelle Conda, Yeeseon Kwon, and Thomas Swenson
Teaching Demonstration: Adult Students and their Facilitators

Andragogy, pedagogy, what’s the difference? Come see and hear for yourself as adult students and their teacher/facilitators provide demonstrations of their collaborations.

Maria Confer, Taae Hamid, Elizabeth Jackson, Evan McAuley, Angelica Rendek, Laura Silva, Joseph Stacy, and Alexandra Taggart 
Creating Art in the Community: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Southeastern Ohio contains impoverished areas that lack exposure to the arts. The MTNA collegiate chapter is using the university piano department’s Debussy recital as a vehicle for interdisciplinary collaboration and community outreach. This includes partnering with local schools, nursing homes, and other venues to enrich underprivileged areas. The audiences will engage the Impressionist creations through venue-specific activities. This outreach will benefit the chapter and the College of Fine Arts through performance opportunities and pedagogical applications.

Vanessa Cornett
The Riddle of the Pianist’s Paradox

Our musical world is brimming with contradictions. When we perform, we simultaneously seek control and freedom, excitement and composure, power and grace, accomplishment and acceptance. This session explores the field of contemplative pedagogy as a foundation for understanding the dual mindsets of successful performers, in order to develop strong mental skills for both practice (training) and performance (trusting). Supplementing our teaching techniques, student activities, and assessment approaches can develop confident, resilient performers at any age.

Diana Dumlavwalla
Striving for Excellence in Online Pedagogy: Characteristics of Expert Teachers Using the Video-Conferencing Format

This session will identify successful traits shared by online teachers and ascertain how they successfully nurture artistic musicians. Effective strategies will be outlined to help ensure online lessons are engaging and student centered.

Natalie Doughty and Scarlette Kerr
Not Just Fun and Games: Strategic Design for Significant Learning

Often overlooked in pedagogy, strategic design is an approach teachers can use to develop cohesive, significant learning experiences in their studios. This presentation will explore various ways strategic design can be influential and effective.

Jennifer Eklund
Strategies for Successfully Teaching Teens

Teenage students represent an often untapped part of the teaching market, and are an age group that can perplex even the most seasoned instructors. In this session, Jennifer Eklund, will discuss strategies for crafting a rewarding piano lesson experience for teens of all levels. Topics covered will include, selecting age-appropriate materials, implementing creative collaborative activities like lead-sheet playing, arranging, and composing, and how to retain their interest in lessons amidst increasingly busy schedules.

Barbara Fast
Change it UP!: Interleaving Practice – What it is, Why it works

Research shows that interleaving practice, returning to a section repeatedly, is more effective than blocked practice. Practical ideas for studio and group teachers implementing this more effortful but powerful practice strategy will be shared.

Christopher Fisher and Katherine Fisher
The Secret Ingredient to Piano Teaching Success: The Powerful Role of Parents

This workshop will explore robust strategies to engage, educate, and encourage the parents of our students. The clinicians, who are piano parents themselves, will introduce parent practice retreats and will discuss powerful practice strategies and resources that parents can use to enhance at-home practice.

Rachel Fritz and Catherine Walby
Community Music Schools As Advocates For Social Justice

Community music schools are uniquely positioned to bring social justice to communities through equitable programming and processes. This session will explore methods in which this is achieved and specifically how the role of piano lessons has played a part through history.

Amy Gillingham, Kimberly Lazzeri, Christina Lalog Seal, and Richard Van Dyke
Dedication: Creative Programming for a Collaborative Recital

Using the 1947 film Song of Love, a musical biopic about Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms, a program weaving clips from the film with musical works by these legends was born. With Widmung (Dedication) as a common thread, we chose a diverse collaborative program involving lieder, chamber, and solo music. Join us as we recreate our journey in preparing for this performance.

Immanuela Gruenberg
Secrets and Dilemmas From a Music Editor’s Desk

This behind-the-scenes look at preparing an edition provides tools for correctly reading a musical score. Discussion will focus on finding good sources; dealing with contradicting sources, ambiguous instructions, and illegible handwriting; interpreting symbols whose meanings have changed over time; traditions of interpretations that clash with historically correct ones; and the effect of standardized printing on how we read (and understand) a score. Understanding these issues is necessary, and empowering, to teachers, students, and performers.

Donna Gunn
Discoveries from the Fortepiano: A Modern Pianist’s Journey

This workshop will explore, articulate, and resolve many of the challenges that today’s pianists face when approaching eighteenth-century repertoire. Participants will discover the importance and usefulness of historically informed performance. Participants will explore the essentials that bring the modern piano in harmony with period practice. Whether you are performing or teaching, this workshop will provide you with artistic and practical suggestions to realize historically informed performance on the modern piano.

Diane Hidy and Michelle Lifshitz
Beyond Boys and Girls: Ten Proven Ways to Make Wise Choices For Your Students Without Resorting to Gender Cliches

Gender cliches are part of our culture, but they needn’t be part of our piano teaching. Using a combination of hard science and hard-fought personal experience, Hidy & Lifshitz will examine how choices based on gender can backfire. More importantly, they will outline specific ways to assess students and help to make the best choices in materials, repertoire and overall teaching decisions.

Sean Hutchins
Cognitive Benefits of Early Childhood Music Training

This session will provide a teacher-friendly overview of the cognitive benefits of music education and the neuroscientific links between music and language abilities. It will discuss the ways that teachers can apply this to their own practice, and provide context to help them better communicate about the science behind music education to students, parents, and administrators.

Soojung Jeon and Yoonsook Song
Time for Two!: Succeeding with Piano Duet

This session will highlight the benefits of playing piano duets and present various piano duet repertoires consisting of pieces suitable for entertainment or competitions and ranging from intermediate to advanced skill levels. As more piano duet competitions have become available, we will also provide teaching suggestions to enable students to enjoy more opportunities to compete in a friendly environment while acquiring a sense of achievement. Prepare to fall in love with piano duets!

Garinee Garmanian Jording
The Professional Identity of Independent Piano Teachers

Many independent piano teachers obtain professional credentials that may help to shape and construct their professional identity. Conversely, piano teachers who do not obtain professional credentials (e.g., music-related degrees, certification), or do not engage in defining events and experiences to shape their professional identity, may view teaching as an avocation rather than a profession. This session will discuss results from a survey questionnaire sent to 4,000 randomly selected piano teachers throughout the United States.

Fred Karpoff
Balancing Clarity and Resonance With Artistic Pedaling

Confused by all the various pedal markings in your music? Not sure how best to teach your students to use the pedals? This session will provide many tools, techniques, and teaching tips to achieve artistic pedaling for you and your students!

Joann Kirchner and Eun Hae Yun
Promoting Mindful Practice

Are there times when you feel your practice is simply mindless repetition? Are you interested in promoting productive practice sessions with yourself or your students? The ability to develop effective practice strategies is crucial for skill acquisition. This presentation will explore the multi-dimensional construct of metacognition and offer ways to incorporate it into practice strategies. Incorporating metacognitive strategies will improve skill development and create mindful rather than mindless practice approaches.

Shana Kirk and George Litterst 
The World Is Our Village: Streaming Recitals to an Online Audience

Teachers, students, and their families are mobile. Many of our students have close friends, relatives, and even immediate family who live in far-off locations. Fortunately, even distant audiences can attend your studio recitals if you stream them onto the Internet. The tools are affordable, easy to use, and readily accessible. And you can achieve the high quality visual and audible results that your students and their music deserves. Students benefit and parents love it!

Morgan Murdock Kline
Kids & Counterpoint: Teaching Off the Bench

Teaching 5-12 year old piano students to play contrapuntal music is a challenge many teachers face. This presentation will discuss the roots of this difficulty, and demonstrate how a three-part process, including singing, movement, and mental exercises, can benefit a student's understanding of counterpoint. By using off-the-bench activities, we can help students musically multi-task, which will develop their ability to play contrapuntal pieces.

Jonathan Kuuskoski
From A to T: Preparing Your Students for the Challenges (and Opportunities) of Tomorrow

This presentation explores practical strategies that will help pre-college students fully leverage their music training to succeed in any academic career.

Penny Lazarus
When our Piano Students Inspire Others: The Socially Conscious Piano Studio

Young people have an innate desire to help others. Pair this compassion with piano study, and your students will be inspired to practice. Implement community projects like practicing to raise funds to “adopt” baby elephants abandoned by ivory poachers in Kenya or to supply music schools in impoverished countries with piano lesson books and students will thrive. Match the cause with thematic pieces and watch your students discover that their music speaks louder than words.

Phyllis Alpert Lehrer
Embracing Complexity: Explorations along the Pianists' Path

As students join me in appreciating the complex process of learning and polishing a piece of music, I find they become more patient, imaginative, and more open to new possibilities. In this lecture I will give examples of solving challenges involving sight reading, memorizing, approaches to technique, and interpretive decisions. Music composed in many styles will be chosen from elementary, intermediate and advanced piano repertoire.

Huiyun Liang
Seeing the Unobservable: An Exploratory Study of Incorporating Video Modeling into Piano Teaching

Following the trend of effective video modeling in sport and physical education, the presenter incorporated portable video modeling technology in teaching elementary piano students for a dissertation project. Participants’ individual progress in motor performance and other musical aspects of performance were tracked through multiple tests over a five-week span. The presenter will share the results of the study, discuss participants’ engagement with technology, and provide suggestions for future studies.

Amber Yiu-Hsuan Liao
Promoting Equity in Concert Programming: Piano Solo Works by Asian Female Composers

In traditional concert programs of classical music, minority and female composers have always been underrepresented. To promote equity in concert programming, I will present a lecture recital showcasing piano solo music by three Asian female composers who, against the odds, were able to make a name for themselves in a predominantly white, male field. The composers are Chen Yi from China, Unsuk Chin from Korea, and Karen Tanaka from Japan.

Andrea McAlister, Pamela Pike, Craig Sale
Professional Opportunities with the Piano Magazine

Join members of the Piano Magazine editorial team to learn about opportunities for you to engage with the Magazine. You’ll learn how to prepare manuscripts for potential publication in the Piano Magazine and about related opportunities for young professionals and collegiate students. During this informative session, you will be able to ask questions and learn about meaningful engagement with all facets of the Piano Magazine.

Lesley McAllister
Facing Fear: Anxiety and the Adolescent Student

Students who learn to be mindful have gained a tool that will help them through any stressful event or personal crisis in their future. In preparing for performance, finding success even in the face of fear helps to develop grit in our adolescent students. This session will introduce apps, stretches, and breathing techniques that can be used before lessons, practice, and performance to help students learn to counteract anxiety for positive experiences with performance.

Spencer Myer
Muscle Memory: Friend or Foe?

Treating muscle memory as a friend and a foe is the best route to a solid memory. The most effective techniques in strengthening memory are those that change one’s routine physical sensation, essentially removing the “autopilot” variable. How does one cause a passage to ‘feel different’, so the brain is forced to engage? This presentation will examine practice techniques geared toward strengthening this non-muscle memory, through the playing/practicing of musical excerpts from the piano.

Christopher Norton
Mixing it up - different approaches to the teaching of improvisation

Over the last 30 years, Christopher Norton has experimented with different approaches to the teaching of improvisation, on a one-to-one basis as well as with groups. He has realised over time that there are a number of approaches that "work" and teachers appreciate this fact and in fact are relieved to find this is the case! In this presentation, Christopher will demonstrate a number of approaches to the teaching of improv. Some of the presentation will feature technology, some will not. A variety of styles will be covered and it will range from very easy to quite sophisticated.

Susan Osborn
The Score Speaks: Teaching Interpretation Through Score Mapping

Teachers have multiple tasks in creating well-rounded musicians. When teaching interpretation, we can easily default to coaching our own ideas. But we can teach a student to be an independent interpreter from their youngest years. Dr. Osborn will explore the idea of creative “Mapping” as a tool for encouraging interpretation. She will discuss how Resource Charts and Mapping lead to the creation of stories and art, thus opening a gateway for more imaginative musical thinking.

Andrew Rathbun and Jeremy Siskind
Footprints in the Snow: Exploring Debussy's Preludes through Improvisation

Jeremy Siskind and Andrew Rathbun were given the monumental task of performing a jazz set based on Debussy’s two books of preludes. What they discovered in transforming the works for an improvisatory performance led to not only a delicate and exploratory recital program, but also to a richer understanding of Debussy’s landmark piano pieces. This lecture recital will both share their arranging process and feature performances from the program.

Michael Rector
Flipping the Private Piano Studio

In classroom instruction, ‘flipping’ refers to the practice of delivering content outside of class, reserving class time for active learning. Private piano teachers can use this instructional model to increase the effectiveness of lessons and foster students’ engagement and sense of community. In this interactive workshop, participants will learn how to set up an online workspace, easily create their own content and activities, identify and link to useful third-party resources, and set up discussion forums.

Wendy Richards
Piano Lessons in the Dark

Teaching piano to a learner who is blind is an exciting yet daunting prospect! Blindness often brings with it social stereotypes of musical genius which subtly influence our expectations and teaching approach. Blindness also brings with it a learning opportunity to discover unique insights into alternative approaches to teaching. Join Wendy as she shares anecdotes and experiences which highlight both challenges and solutions to teaching piano in this setting.

Wynn-Anne Rossi
Jazzy Notes and Wild Stories

Jazz culture is rich with colorful characters and unique musical styles. Join Wynn-Anne on this historical romp from ragtime roots to contemporary jazz. Discover fascinating stories behind jazz giants and explore the famous places where they performed. Music samples will draw from original “gems” by the greats and pedagogically-friendly music for the studio. Introduce the humanity of jazz to your students!

Joseph Stacy
Progressive Lessons: How Our Music Careers Can Combat Social Injustice

Is it possible to teach piano in a prison? Inspired by initiatives to reach marginalized populations through piano, this session will discuss the concepts of equitable access and inclusivity as well as how to promote these values through our careers in piano pedagogy.

Lois Svard
The Musical World of Infants: What It Can Tell Us About How Children Actually Learn Music

Infants are born with surprising musical abilities that are usually lost by the age of one because they have not been nurtured as language is nurtured. What are these innate abilities, how can we help provide parents with the tools they need to nurture their infant’s musicianship, and how can we adapt our pedagogy to recapture a child’s innate musical abilities if they have been lost in the critical years before formal music lessons begin?

Kotova Svetlana
Chilean Music for Young Pianists

This presentation will review the little known music for aspiring pianists, written by traditional and living composers of Chile, South America. Pieces for different levels or skill sets will be analyzed from pedagogical point of view. The lecture will feature performance of selected works, suggesting different technical and musical ideas, in order to inspire students to create the most beautiful, artistic rendition of the score.

Janet Tschida
Rhythmic Revolution

Do you have students who can count aloud and even write in the counts, but seemingly have no internal sense of rhythm? Have you tried an “aural approach,” but then struggled to smoothly transfer to fluent reading? Learn a highly effective, easy-to-implement, systematic sound-before-sight approach to rhythmic development that includes fun, engaging, whole-body rhythmic activities applicable to both private and group settings.

Gloria Tham-Haines
Trust-Based Relational Intervention(R) Strategies for the Trauma-Informed Piano Studio

This session will introduce strategies from Trust-Based Relational Intervention® to develop a trauma-informed piano studio for children who have experience trauma. The strategies discussed are aimed for children who are fostered, adopted, and those who have learning and behavioral challenges. The session will examine the fear response and how that affects brain chemistry. Activities and current piano pedagogy practices which can disarm the fear response are described, along with suggested equipment.

Glenn Utsch
What, No Joplin? Exploring the "Other" Early Ragtime Pianists and Expanding the Piano Repertoire

When asked, “Who were the great early ragtime piano composers?”, most people, including some musicians, can only answer “Scott Joplin”. The purpose of this presentation is to explore through a lecture-recital the rich history of ragtime piano, delve into many ragtime composers who have not received Joplin’s recognition, and highlight unfamiliar ragtime repertoire that could enhance student learning and performance.

Todd Van Kekerix
Elvina Pearce: An Excursion Through the Life and Contributions of a Piano Pedagogue

Pearce has dedicated her life to the field of piano pedagogy through workshops, editor for Clavier Companion, and as pedagogy professor. She started out as a performer, but quickly realized the power of teaching and soon crafted a dynamic, problem-solving based approach that has resonated with many in the field. This session will address her pedagogical contributions through Solo Flight and her additional collections of elementary and intermediate composition and their pedagogical value.

Sophie Wang
Worth A Thousand Words: Poulenc’s Musical Depictions in Les Soirées de Nazelles

This lecture-recital investigates the musical depictions of Francis Poulenc through a largely unknown work: Les Soirées de Nazelles. Written over the course of six years and finished in 1936, this suite is a collection of musical portraits of Poulenc’s friends as viewed by himself during evening parties with them in the countryside of Nazelles. This lecture-recital demonstrates Poulenc's wittiness and charm through his compositional idiom in the pianist-composer's pianistic style.

Adrienne Wiley
Undiscovered Gems of Canadian Pedagogical Piano Literature: The Piano Works of Violet Archer, Jean Coulthard, and Barbara Pentland

Three Canadian women made a profound impact on the music and composition scene in the early 20th century: Violet Archer, Jean Coulthard and Barbara Pentland. All three wrote quality educational pieces for young pianists. This lecture will highlight Archer’s Six Preludes, Coulthard’s Pieces for the Present, and Pentland’s Hands Across the C and Space Studies.