Piano Studio

With its internationally renowned performance faculty, favorable student-teacher ratio, and first-class facilities, the University of Louisville School of Music trains talented pianists not only from Kentucky, but from all corners of the world. Piano faculty members provide highly individualized instruction for both aspiring performers and teachers. Students cover a wide range of repertoire including music by living composers and have many opportunities for collaborative activities and chamber music. The faculty provides expertise and resources to the community, region, and state through public performances and outreach programs for teachers and pre-collegiate students. 

Degrees are designed to develop the skills students will need as professionals and to broaden their knowledge and understanding of music history and literature, theory, and the humanities. Ample opportunities are provided for public performance, practice teaching, and other professional experiences.

Degrees of interest to piano majors include:

• Bachelor of Music with emphasis in Piano Performance, Piano Performance with concentration in Piano Pedagogy, Composition, Theory, Music History, and Music Therapy  
• Bachelor of Music Education  
• Bachelor of Music Education (Pre-Certification)
  
• Bachelor of Arts in Music
• Master of Music in Music Performance with concentrations in Piano Performance, Piano Pedagogy, Composition, Theory, Music History, or Conducting
• Master of Music Education
• Master of Arts in Teaching in Music Education

Generous financial aid is available, including undergraduate scholarships and graduate service awards. Graduate teaching assistantships provide full tuition plus a minimum stipend of $12,000 and health insurance.

The School of Music building contains two recital halls, a 15,000 square foot music library, forty-four teaching studios, and seventy-six practice rooms, many of them reserved exclusively for piano majors. The school is close to becoming an “All-Steinway School”. The 560-seat Margaret Comstock Concert Hall houses two Steinway and a Bösendorfer “Imperial” concert grand pianos as well as a 64-rank Steiner-Reck organ, the largest of its kind in the Midwest. Also available to students are five harpsichords and a number of practice organs. A class piano lab consists of 20 Yamaha Clavinova keyboards.

Applied Piano Requirements 

Functional Piano

Graduate Piano Majors and Principals

MUS 331-332

Piano Bachelor of Arts Degree

Secondary Piano

Undergraduate Piano Majors and Principals

Piano Faculty

Naomi Oliphant, Area Coordinator; piano, piano ensemble, piano pedagogy

Krista Wallace-Boaz, piano, class piano, piano pedagogy

Dror Biran,piano, piano chamber music, piano literature

Karen Griffin, class piano

(from left to right: Krista Wallace-Boaz, Naomi Oliphant)  

(Dror Biran)

Piano students gather to celebrate the retirement of Dr. Brenda Kee 

Piano Related Courses

Applied Study on Piano, Organ or Harpsichord 
Piano Ensemble (Piano Duets, Chamber Music and Accompanying, Art Song Repertoire) 
Keyboard Skills 
Piano Pedagogy I-IV 
Piano Pedagogy Practicum I & II 
Advanced Piano Pedagogy I-IV 
Baroque Keyboard Literature 
Piano Literature I & II 
Special Topics: Interpretation Seminar

Pictured left: Keyboard reunion of graduates in the New York area following the Carnegie Hall performance of the Grawemeyer Players, March 9, 2010. 

Pictured left: Piano majors in attendance at the KMTA State Conference held at Campbellsville University in October 2008 along with faculty members, Dr. Naomi Oliphant and Dr. Krista Wallace-Boaz

Recent guest artists who have given recitals,  master classes or residencies

Pictured left:  Alicia de Larrocha, Richard Glazier, Richard Goode, Lee Luvisi (UofL Professor Emeritus), and Russell Sherman

 Gold Medalist of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (5th from right in back row) gave a master class for our students and a public recital on campus in October 2010.

2009 Van Cliburn Competition Winners

• Haochen Zhang
• Yeol Yun Sum, Silver Medalist

2005 Van Cliburn Competition Winners

• Alexander Kobrin, Gold Medalist
• Joyce Yang, Silver Medalist
• Sa Chen, Crystal Winner

2001 Van Cliburn Competition Winners

• Olga Kern and Stanislav Ioudenitch, Gold Medalists
• Maxim Philippov and Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Silver Medalists