Speaker Biographies: 2006-2007

ROBERT LEVIN (Back to Meetings) has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and in Asia, appearing with the orchestras of Atlanta, Berlin, Birmingham, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Montreal, Utah and Vienna on the Steinway and with the Academy of Ancient Music, the English Baroque Soloists, the Handel & Haydn Society, the London Classical Players, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique on period pianos. Renowned for his improvised cadenzas in Classical period repertoire, Robert Levin has made recordings of a wide range of repertoire for DG Archiv, Decca/London, ECM, Hänssler, New York Philomusica, Philips and SONY Classical. His recordings include Bach’s complete keyboard concertos, the six English Suites and both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier (Hänssler Edition Bachakademie); a Mozart concerto cycle with Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music for Decca/Oiseau Lyre; and the Beethoven concertos with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique for DG Archiv. A passionate advocate of new music, Robert Levin has commissioned and premiered a large number of works, including Joshua Fineberg’s Veils (2001), John Harbison’s Second Sonata (2003), Yehudi Wyner’s piano concerto Chiavi in mano (Pulitzer Prize, 2006), Bernard Rands’ Preludes (2007) and Thomas Oboe Lee’s Piano Concerto (2007).

Robert Levin appears frequently with his wife, pianist Ya-Fei Chuang, in duo recitals and with orchestra, and with violist Kim Kashkashian. A noted Mozart scholar, Mr. Levin’s completions of Mozart’s Requiem and other unfinished works have been recorded and performed throughout the world. In 2005 his completion of the Mozart C-minor Mass, commissioned by Carnegie Hall, was premiered there and has since been widely heard in the United States and Europe. After more than a quarter century as an artist teacher at the Sarasota Music Festival he was made Associate Artistic Director in 2004 and succeeded Paul Wolfe as Artistic Director in 2007. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Akademie für Mozartforschung, he is President of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition (Leipzig, Germany) and Dwight P. Robinson, Jr. Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. (Top of page)

WILLIAM WESTNEY (Back to Meetings) William Westney's work is having a uniquely refreshing and invigorating impact on music education and the empowerment of performers of every genre. His critically praised book THE PERFECT WRONG NOTE is now in its second printing. It is a “well-thought-out approach to music instruction to which many aspire, but which few attain” according to the Library Journal, and American Record Guide described it as “refreshing and rewarding.” Mr. Westney's unique “Un-Master Class” performance workshops were described as "fascinating" in a featured New York Times article. They are increasingly in demand in the U.S. and abroad, having been held at such prominent centers as the Aspen School, Peabody Conservatory, Kennedy Center, Central Conservatory (Beijing), Cleveland Institute, Tanglewood Institute, Royal College of Music (London), and Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst (Vienna). He is in demand for lectures and workshops for teachers' organizations worldwide.
As concert pianist, William Westney was the top piano prize-winner of the Geneva International Competition, and he appeared thereafter as soloist with such major orchestras as l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Houston, San Antonio and New Haven Symphonies. Westney holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens College in New York and a Masters and Doctorate in performance from Yale University, all with highest honors. During his study in Italy under a Fulbright grant he was the only American winner in auditions held by Radiotelevisione Italiana. His solo recital appearances include New York's Lincoln Center, the National Gallery and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., St. John's Smith Square in London, National Public Radio ("Performance Today"), and a U.S. State Department tour of Italy.

William Westney holds two endowed positions at Texas Tech University – Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor and Browning Artist-in-Residence – and has been honored many times with teaching awards, including the Yale School of Music Alumni Association's prestigious "Certificate of Merit." As a grantee in the U.S. State Department's Fulbright "Senior Specialist" program (Council for International Exchange of Scholars), he traveled in November 2006 to Korea and China for teaching residencies. (Top of page)

NEPTA EDITIONS COMMITTEE (Back to Meetings) will present different perspectives on Brahms using as examples some of the Waltzes of Op. 39 and Klavierstücke Op. 76 Nos. 2,7; Op. 116 No. 6; Op. 117 No.1; and Op. 119 No. 3. Our approaches will include placing these pieces in the context of his piano works, technical and musical aspects of teaching them, exoticism in Brahms's music, and how his music affected future composition.

Deborah Yardley Beers, D.M.A., has served on the piano faculty at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge for more than 15 years. A past soloist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Denver Symphony Orchestra, she has performed live on WGBH and in solo and chamber recitals in this country and abroad. She has also recorded music of Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee on the Seda label. Her teachers included Edward Kilenyi and Leonard Shure.

Miriam Gargarian received her Doctor of Music in Piano Performance from Indiana University where she studied piano with Sidney Foster and George Bolet and was coached in chamber music by Joseph Gingold and Franco Gulli. Her doctoral dissertation was an analysis of the "Four Piano Pieces" and "Six Pictures" by the Armenian composer Arno Babajanian. She taught at the University of Wisconsin-Eu Claire and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. WGBH and WCRB have aired her performances.

Elfrieda Hiebert, musicologist, chamber music coach and piano teacher has taught at Brandeis University, Tufts University, Radcliffe Seminars and Harvard University (Director, Mather Chamber Music Program). The BA and MA in Music was received from the University of Chicago and the Ph.D. in Musicology and Chamber Music Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has lectured at national and international meetings and her publications include studies on Beethoven, Brahms and the relationship between science and music in the 19th century. Recently she has been a Research Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.

Sandra P. Rosenblum is the author of Performance Practices in Classic Piano Music (Choice Outstanding Academic Book, 1989), and of book chapters and journal articles on topics related to the Classic period and Chopin. She has lectured for piano teachers, at universities across the U.S., and at national and international conferences. Rosenblum has been a Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Radcliffe Institute, and a winner of the Wilk Prize of the Polish Music Center. (Top of page)

JEAN STACKHOUSE (Back to Meetings) served for many years on the faculty of the New England Conservatory, where she directed the Piano Pedagogy Program, served as Director of Education, chair of the piano department and founder of the Piano Performance Seminars for their Preparatory School. She is a lecturer and clinician throughout the United States, where her workshop presentations have been featured at Curtis Institute, Eastman School of Music and University of Wisconsin. In the Spring of 2005, the New England Conservatory Preparatory School presented its first “Jean Stackhouse Excellence in Teaching Award” in her honor, the award to be given annually in perpetuity. She has been a member of the Berkshire Music School faculty since 2005. (Top of page)

DONALD BERMAN (Back to Meetings) Donald Berman is a champion of new works by living composers, overlooked music by twentieth century masters, and recitals that link classical and modern repertoires. His recent CDs "The Unknown Ives volumes 1 & 2," and "The Uncovered Ruggles" on New World Records have been internationally acclaimed. He is the Artistic Director for the American Academy in Rome Concert series in New York and subsequent four-volume CD on Bridge Records. He has presented recitals, lectures, and masterclasses recently in Israel, Italy, and throughout the United States. He has performed to critical acclaim in New York City at Miller Theater, Zankel Hall, Merkin Hall, and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. This season Donald premiered and recorded Christopher Theofanidis’ Piano Concerto with the Pro Musica Cahmber Orchestra of Ohio, recorded a CD of songs by Aaron Jay Kernis with Susan Narucki (Koch 2008) and premiered the Fromm Foundation Commission of Stephen Jaffe’s Viola Sonata with Jonathan Bagg of the Compi Quartet.Other recent work has ranged from Mozart concertos with the Columbus Symphony to American music retrospectives, to recitals linking Haydn and Schubert with new music, called "thrillingly clear" (NYTimes). He is a prizewinner of the 1991 Schubert International Competition and a member of the Dinosaur Annex New Music Ensemble since 1987. Berman has been presented by League/ISCM, Masters of Tomorrow in Germany, French Cultural Services (FaurŽ Sesquicentennial), and many others. He has premiered concertos, solo and ensemble works with many organizations including Collage, Real Art Ways, and on his series Firstworks and Pioneers and Premieres. (Top of page)

JOSEPH DI PIAZZA (Back to Meetings) is Professor of Piano at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. He has performed extensively in this country, Canada and in Europe as recitalist, chamber player, and soloist with symphony orchestras. His musical talents have led to numerous honors and awards. In addition to many University Guest Artist Series, Dr. Di Piazza has performed on series at the Chicago Art Institute, Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Cincinnati Museum of Art, Washington Museum of Art, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for the Performing Arts. He has participated as a performer, clinician, and adjudicator at Interlochen, Ravinia, Chicago Spring Arts Festival, Beethoven Festival in NY, Eastern Music Festival, and the Rachmaninoff Society. Live performances for NPR radio include Chicago, IL; Albany, NY; Madison, WI; Charlotte and Winston-Salem, NC. Concerto appearances include symphonies in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Washington, Madison, Greensboro and Fayettville, NC. with concertos of Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, Grieg, Gershwin, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky.

A native of Chicago, Di Piazza received a B-music from DePaul University and a DMA degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His major teachers have been Herman Shapiro, Paul Badura-Skoda, Howard Karp and Daniel Ericourt. (Top of page)