2021-23 Piano Festival Workshop – It’s a Virtual Event!
2021-23 Piano Festival Workshop
Our 2021-23 Piano Festival Workshop covers the NCMTA Piano Performance Festival Repertoire for the next two festivals seasons. The workshop is a paid service of the North Carolina Music Teachers Association, and will remain available on our Vimeo channel, from September 2021 through June of 2023. For more information and to register, please visit the Professional Development area of this website.
Clinicians Dr. Elena Nezhdanova and Dr. Annie Jeng
Read on for more information about our distinguished workshop clinicians.
Many years of interest in and research of physiology of piano playing brought Dr. Elena Nezhdanova the opportunity to write a review of Irina Gorin’s piano method “Tales of a Musical Journey” based on the Russian School of piano playing published by the Clavier Companion Magazine (The Piano Magazine) in November 2017. In the Spring of 2021, she presented an online lecture on the Russian School of Piano Playing and “Tales of a Musical Journey” books for the Winston-Salem Piano Teachers Association. In addition, Elena presented at North Carolina’s Teacher’s Association chapters and North Carolina State’s conference.
In June 2019, Dr. Nezhdanova was invited to give a three-hour lecture on new American piano methods for professional piano teachers in Olomouc, Czech Republic. During the same trip, she gave a master class to piano four-hands student ensembles from North London Collegiate School in the U.K. In May 2020, Elena was invited to appear as a guest speaker and gave master classes through YouTube live stream for The Piano League, and taught virtual guest master classes for East Tennessee State University and Opus Ithaca School of Music.
Dr. Nezhdanova’s students received Highest Honors at various Young Artist competitions, participated and won awards at the North Carolina Bach Festival, and were invited to participate in the Live “Piano Star Showcase” for Young Pianists through The Piano League featuring talented students from the US and Canada. Additionally, Dr. Nezhdanova’s students won top prizes at Carmel Klavier International Competition for Young Artists and Rocky Mountain International Competition and Festival (Canada). This Summer, Dr. Nezhdanova will continue her teaching activities at Opus Ithaca School of Music and collaborative work at Ithaca College, Cornell University, and Syracuse University in the Fall of 2021.
Dr. Annie Jeng is a Taiwanese-American pianist, educator, and collaborator. She is committed to listening, learning, and becoming a better member of society with the hopes of paving roads for justice, collaboration, and kindness in communities. She has performed widely in such settings as the Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Italy, the Gijón International Piano Festival in Spain, the Kennedy Center, Interlochen Arts Academy, and China. She also enjoys creating new ways to perform and engage with audiences outside of traditional venues in spaces such as living rooms, online mediums, and breweries. Recent performances have included Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with UNCG’s University Symphony Orchestra, Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Messiaen’s La Ville d’en Haut with the University of Michigan Symphony Band, and Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques with the University of Michigan Contemporary Directions Ensemble.
A Presser scholar, Annie has presented at Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) conferences at collegiate, state, and national levels, The National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP), and College Music Society (CMS) conferences. She is the Vice President of the Greensboro Music Teachers Association.
Annie’s essential goal as an artist is to make communities richer and more meaningful through the arts. To this end, Annie strives to make music accessible to audiences of all backgrounds by expanding and rethinking the traditional recital format to include interdisciplinary and interactive elements, all with the aim of encouraging audiences to engage with the artistic experience. Recent projects include, “Music by the Barrel,” which was a concert series at the Ann Arbor Distilling Company in Ann Arbor, “Beyond the Keys: Unlocking Piano Works” which was an interactive concert on the roof of a parking deck performed by her piano pedagogy students, and “Brews-keys” which featured UNCG piano faculty and students at Oden Brewing Company in Greensboro, North Carolina. She also led music workshops that focused on group singing and music as a form of expression through the Prison Creative Arts Project at University of Michigan.
During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Annie personally picked up and delivered keyboards to UNCG piano students in order to ensure that music within student’s lives would not be stopped. As a strong believer in creating a better and more equitable “normal,” she also founded A Seat at the Piano (ASAP) in the summer of 2020 (aseatatthepiano.com). ASAP is a resource that is dedicated to the promotion of inclusion in the performance and study of solo piano repertoire.
Much of Annie’s research is devoted to contemporary music and studying the pedagogical capabilities of contemporary piano techniques. In 2018, Annie received the Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship from the University of Michigan to create a pedagogical resource called Circles and Lines that will feature newly commissioned works by female composers that introduce unconventional piano techniques to intermediate pianists. She is also the pianist of Khemia Ensemble (khemiaensemble.com), a contemporary chamber ensemble that is dedicated to promoting contemporary classical music by cultivating inclusive place-making, collaborative mentorships, and authentic storytelling through immersive, multimedia performances. She released the album, “World Map ” with Parma Recordings as the former pianist of Four Corner’s Ensemble. Committed to supporting musicians in finding their unique career path, she also worked as a Programming Assistant at University of Michigan’s Excellence in Entrepreneurship, Career Empowerment & Leadership (EXCEL) Lab. She also serves as a member of the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP) Career Development and Innovation Committee. Annie received her MM in Piano Performance from the University of Michigan and her BM in Piano Performance with a minor in Public Health from New York University. She received her DMA in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Michigan in 2019. Her teachers include Logan Skelton, José Ramón Mendez, Miyoko Lotto, Anne-Marie McDermott, and Faye Bonner. She is currently the Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. (anniejeng.com)
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