Naomi Oliphant

Canadian born pianist, Naomi Oliphant, has earned an international reputation as a soloist and chamber musician in the U.S.A., Canada, Europe, and Japan. Her solo appearances include engagements with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, the Louisville Orchestra, the Louisville Ballet, the Hamilton Philharmonic, and the Niagara Symphony. She has appeared numerous times on the Louisville Orchestra’s New Dimensions Twentieth Century and International Soundcelebration series and has been aired on radio and television in Canada, the U.S.A., and Europe. As pianist of The McHugh-Oliphant Duo, she performed forty concerts a year for over twenty years with violinist, Peter McHugh. Their extensive performing career in the U.S.A., Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, and Spain included performances on such illustrious series as The Phillips Collection in Washington, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, the Opéra Municipal in Montpellier, Caja San Fernando in Seville, and at the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Their 1989 tour of Portugal was sponsored by the USIA and the American Embassy in Lisbon.

Dr. Oliphant has been collaborating with tenor, Daniel Weeks, since 1999. Perhaps their most memorable engagement was performing in 2002 for the memorial service of Robert Tools, the world's first recipient of a self-contained artificial heart. Their second European tour in 2008 included engagements in Poland and the Czech Republic. In 2007, they were invited performers for the Collaborative Conference of the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers Association/Music Teachers National Association/Royal Conservatory of Music held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and their recording of Vítězslava Kaprálová’s song cycle, Navždy, was featured on “Componist van de week”, a weekly broadcast on Radio 4 Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Their first CD together, Women of Firsts: A Recording of Art Songs by Lili Boulanger, Amy Beach, Grażyna Bacewicz, and Vítězslava Kaprálová , is scheduled for release during 2008 by Centaur Records, Inc.

Dr. Oliphant has performed and lectured on many college campuses and at European conservatories as well as for national conferences of Music Teachers National Association, the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy, the College Music Society, and for state music teachers conferences. She has served as a collaborative pianist for International Clarinet Congresses, the Affiliate Artists Program, the Canada Council’s Choirs in Contact, the Ontario Choral Federation, and as a faculty member of the Banff Summer School of Fine Arts. She has given masterclasses in Canada, the USA, Spain, Germany, and Poland and published many articles in major keyboard and pedagogical journals. Studying at a very young age with Canada’s top pedagogue, Mona Bates, she went on to receive Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of Toronto under the guidance of pianists, Pierre Souvairan and Anton Kuerti, and Irene Jessner for voice. She earned the D.M.A. degree from the University of Michigan where she studied with Eugene Bossart and Charles Fisher, and harpsichord with Edward Parmentier. She holds the Master Teacher Certificate from Music Teachers National Association.

Appointed Associate Dean of the University of Louisville School of Music in 1998, she previously served thirteen years as Chair of the Keyboard/Vocal Performance Department. She currently also serves as Keyboard Area Coordinator. Honored with the university’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1994, she received the 2003 Distinguished Service Award from the Kentucky Music Teachers Association. Active with local and state music teachers groups, she is currently Senior Editor of the Kentucky Music Teacher. She was a committee member of the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy and has been a Seminar Leader for many National Conferences on Keyboard Pedagogy.

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Listen to a recent performance of Naomi Oliphant performing "Auf dem Strom" (On the River) by Schubert with UofL professors Daniel Weeks and Bruce Heim: Excerpt (1.9MB), Complete Version (8.1MB!) 

Listen to Three Browning Songs, Op 44 by Amy Beach with Daniel Weeks, tenor and Naomi Oliphant, piano (seen in the photo to the right):

The Year's at the Spring
Ah, Love, but a day!
I send my heart up to thee!