Professor of Music and Department Chair
Dr. John F. Paul chairs the Department of Music at Benedictine College, where he teaches music theory, history, and composition. He previously chaired music departments at Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA) and Marylhurst University (Portland, OR). He has served on the Board of Directors and Commission on Accreditation for the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), as well as a taskforce that helped update the association’s standards for sacred music programs. He has served on boards for Cascadia Composers, Portland Summer Ensembles, and Ars Nova Music.
Paul is an active composer in both traditional and contemporary formats. At the Institute of Psycho-acoustics and Electronic Music (I.P.E.M) in Ghent, Belgium, Paul created works to be broadcast over Belgian National Radio and at the International Festival of Experimental Music (Bourges, France). His videogame credits include the music scores and sound-designs for Gauntlet Legends, Maximum Force, and Pit-fighter. His original score to F.W. Murnau's 1930 silent film City Girl, funded in part by a Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission, has been presented with live accompaniment at the Oregon Sesquicentennial Film Festival, Astoria Music Festival, and by Vancouver (WA) and Oregon East Symphonies. Paul’s instrumental compositions have been heard at West Fork New Music Festival (Fairmont WV), Cascadia Composers concerts (Portland OR), Ernst Bloch Music Festival (Newport OR), New Music and Art Festival (Bowling Green OH), June-in-Buffalo New Music Festival (NY) and Composers Inc. recital series (San Francisco). His choral works have been performed by Chorus Austin Vocal Arts Ensemble, Portland Vocal Consort, Choral Arts Ensemble of Portland, and Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble (Seattle). As a violinist he has been a member of the Austin (TX) and Owensboro (KY) Symphony Orchestras. He earned the Bachelor of Music degree in Theory/Composition from the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas-Austin, and his Master of Music and Doctor of Music degrees in composition from the Jacob School of Music at Indiana University-Bloomington. He recently completed a Certificate in Non-profit Management from University of Washington.
Professor of Music
Dr. Christopher Greco received B.A. music and M.A. music composition from California State University, Los Angeles and the Doctor of Musical Arts, D.M.A. degree in classical performance from University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr. Greco is an educator, composer/performer, woodwind specialist, award winning composer, and scholar of music with interests covering a broad range across several musical disciplines including composition, performance, and music theory. He is active in the classical, polystylist, and jazz fields as a recitalist and composer/performer, and was trained as a composer and multi-instrumentalist (clarinet, flute, saxophone, oboe) in his hometown of Los Angeles.
Publications appear in Saxophone Journal (U.S.), Saxophone Today (U.S.), Clarinet & Saxophone Society of Great Britain (U.K.), and doctoral paper, A Study: An Interpretation and Analysis of a Late Twentieth Century Work for Saxophone and Piano: Steven Stucky’s Notturno is published by Akademiker Verlag, 2008.
Dr. Greco served on the music faculty at Pepperdine University, UCLA, and University of Maryland. He joined the Benedictine College music faculty in 2008. Currently Dr. Greco teaches: music theory (coordinator), composition (coordinator), seminar in composition, orchestration, counterpoint, studio applied woodwinds, Honors course -Twentieth Century Music: Musical Styles of Modern Europe and America, chamber ensembles, and History of Jazz (summer online) at Benedictine College. He and his wife Yvette have three children, Nicholas, Julia, and Alexander.
Associate Professor of Music
Dr. Timothy Jon Tharaldson is the Director of Choral Activities at Benedictine College, where he conducts five choral ensembles, teaches private voice, conducting, and liturgical music. He is also the Artistic Director of the St. Joseph Community Chorus. Prior to his current appointments, he taught at Rocky Mountain High School, Smoky Hill High School, and Ponderosa High School in Colorado. He has sung with Te Deum of Kansas City and was a member of the nationally acclaimed Kantorei of Denver for ten seasons.
Timothy has received commissions from the Notre Dame Magnificat Choir, the Minnesota Sinfonia, Wartburg College, St. Cloud State University, Longmont Chorale, Kantorei, and numerous other choral organizations. His composition Rest was featured by the 2015 Colorado All-State Mixed Choir and was also the contest piece performed by seven different choirs as part of the 122nd Queensland Eisteddfod in Brisbane, Australia.
His compositions are published through MusicSpoke, Hal Leonard, and Santa Barbara Music Publishing. Timothy is a member of the American Choral Director’s Association, American Composers Forum, Colorado Music Educators Association, and the Kansas Music Educators Association. He holds degrees from St. Cloud State University, the University of Northern Colorado, and the University of Kansas.
Assistant Professor of Music
Originally from the United Kingdom, Dr. Tom Davoren has held conducting positions with famous British style brass bands including the Fairey and Desford Colliery bands, as well as winning the 2014 section 1 National Brass Band Championship with his own band, Filton. He taught conducting and directed bands at the University of Salford from 2015 to 2019 and has appeared as a guest conductor, composer, and adjudicator in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Lithuania, France, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Serving as Director of Bands at Benedictine College since 2021 he supervises the band area, teaches courses in conducting, and conducts the wind ensemble, concert band, brass band, and percussion ensemble.
Noted performances of Tom’s music have been given by the University of Kansas Wind Ensemble, ‘The President’s Own’ United States Marine Band, United States Air Force Concert Band, ‘West Point’ Band of the United States Military Academy, Bands of the British Royal Air Force and Royal Corps of Army Music, trumpet soloist Jens Lindemann, and euphonium soloists Hiram Daiz and Steven Mead to name a few. His music is performed wherever bands play, including multiple times at New York’s Carnegie Hall, at CBDNA, ITEA, and ITG conferences, and at the WASBE, Jeju, and WMC international festivals. There are over 25 commercial recordings of Tom’s music, his ‘A Midwestern Suite’ was awarded the National Band Association Merrill Jones Composition Prize for 2020 and was performed at the Midwest Clinic 2021. His ‘Kneller’s Legacy’ was commissioned in 2021 to commemorate the decommissioning of the British Army School of Music at Kneller Hall, he composed a fanfare to open the National Assembly for Wales in 2016, and his piece ‘Legacy’ commemorated the 75th Birthday of the British National Health Service with a performance at the Houses of Parliament.
Tom completed his doctorate in wind conducting at the University of Kansas, under the supervision of Dr. Paul Popiel, and holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in composition from Cardiff University School of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Assistant Professor of Music
Dr. Melissa Sawyer teaches music education courses, clarinet lessons, and directs the Concert Band for the Department of Music. She is a native of Edmond, Okla., and has taught at the middle school, high school, and collegiate levels in Oklahoma, Texas, Nevada, and New Mexico.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education from the University of Oklahoma where she marched with the acclaimed Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band. She also holds a Master of Arts in Conducting from New Mexico State University where she studied with Dr. Michael Mapp and Dr. Steven Smyth. Sawyer served as the Assistant Director of Bands at New Mexico State University where she was Assistant Director of The Pride of New Mexico Marching Band, Roadrunner Revue Pep Band, Desert Winds Indoor Marching Arts, and Pete’s Outlaws Pep Band. Sawyer taught courses in Music Education at the undergraduate and graduate levels and conducted the Symphonic Band. She completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting with Dr. Paul Popiel at the University of Kansas, where she served as the KU Volleyball Band Conductor.
In addition to her duties in the music department, Professor Sawyer serves as Director of Athletic Bands, leading the Raven Regiment and Athletic Bands.
Orchestra
Dr. Brian Casey holds the Doctor of Arts and Master of Music degrees in wind/orchestral conducting (University of Northern Colorado and University of Delaware, respectively). He also holds the in B.A. in instrumental and vocal Music Education from Harding University. Casey’s dissertation treated funereal music styles historically, theoretically—and practically, in that it offered new transcriptions of landmark funeral pieces for various instrumental ensembles.
Casey has served on several collegiate faculties, including two others in the Heartland. At Houghton College (NY) from 2007-2013, he was Director of Instrumental Activities and Music Director and Conductor of the orchestra and the wind band. He has mentor-taught master's-level students in instrumental conducting and has participated in numerous conducting symposia. His teaching experience includes applied conducting and horn, classroom conducting courses, wind and orchestral literature, music education, student teacher supervision, aural skills, and music history.
Casey has served ten community and semi-professional ensembles as conductor or associate conductor—including the Kansas City Wind Symphony, the Southern Tier (NY) Symphony, and the Northern Colorado Concert Band. He has performed with more than 40 wind, brass, orchestral, and jazz ensembles. In addition, he is a seasoned composer and arranger. His Christian works have been performed by an a cappella group and by college and high school choirs. His orchestral and wind works have been performed by the Kansas City Wind Symphony, the Kansas City Brass Project, the Heart of America Wind Symphony, the brass of the Dallas Wind Symphony, the Southern Tier (NY) Symphony, and collegiate ensembles in CO, NY, TX, and WY. Casey’s honors include membership in Alpha Chi, Phi Kappa Phi, and Pi Kappa Lambda. He is a member of the College Band Directors National Association and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.
Casey is the author of books on the Kingdom of God, the Christian assembly, worship, and funeral music. The Managing Editor of Dialogē Press and a study partner in the Institute for the Art of Biblical Conversation, he regularly collaborates in the editing of books on biblical studies. Casey also blogs, mostly on Christian and music topics. His son Jedd is a budding composer, singer, and instrumentalist.
Piano
Laura Goehner Moreno, originally from Kansas, received a Bachelor and Master’s degree in Piano Performance from the University of Kansas, and continued postgraduates studies at the National Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland. She studied with Dr. Richard Reber and Dr. Jack Winerock at the University of Kansas and with the famed pianist Claude Frank for seven years in master classes. Her later studies were with the renowned pianist Sequeira Costa, with whom she studied for five years.
Laura has performed numerous piano concerts in the US and Mexico and has recorded a CD of classical Mexican piano music and another CD with her own compositions. She performs as soloist, chamber pianist and collaborative pianist. Her piano teaching and performance experience encompasses 30 years. She taught piano and formed various piano trios in the San Francisco Bay area (1990-2013).
In 2013 she and her family relocated to Atchison, Kansas where she serves as Adjunct Piano Faculty for the Benedictine College Music Department, specializing in Applied Piano. She maintains her own private piano studio, the Laura Goehner Moreno Piano Studio, located in Atchison, Kansas.
Percussion, Music Literature
Dr. Luke Helker is a percussionist, educator and sound engineer currently living in Lawrence, Kansas. He is currently completing his doctorate in percussion performance at the University of Kansas. He has had the great privilege to study under Michael Compitello and Sam Um and has had the distinguished pleasure of performing with So Percussion, Sandbox Percussion, yarn/wire, and Eriko Daimo, among others.
Luke is a passionate advocate for contemporary music and has commissioned new music from composers like Jenni Brandon, Kevin Day, Frank Nawrot, Nicholas Tran, and Daijana Wallace. He often collaborates in chamber ensembles with other instrumentalists including cellists, vocalists, and is also interested in interdisciplinary projects and has collaborated with visual artists and dancers.
Luke is currently the instrumental music instructor at the Bishop Seabury Academy and has previously held positions with various high school marching programs, both indoor and outdoor. He is extremely fortunate to have worked with non-profit organizations to provide clinics and masterclasses to K-12 children and public concerts.
As a musicologist, Luke has presented at the Midwest Music Research Symposium at the University of Kansas and Made in Millersville in Pennsylvania. He is particularly interested in studying music that intersects with nature and his Master’s thesis examined the relationship between living in Alaska and the compositional output of composers like John Luther Adams and Matthew Burtner.
When he’s not in the practice room or the classroom, Luke can often be found running, reading, or in the kitchen trying to make the perfect omelette. He is thrilled to be joining the Raven family at Benedictine.
Strings
Judy Koster received her Master of Music degree from the University of Missouri - Columbia and her Bachelor of Music from Ithaca College in New York. Judy has taught private violin and viola students since 1982 and has been an educator at the elementary, high school and collegiate levels since 1983. Her students are known for achieving top awards at competitions and several former private students are in professional orchestras and college faculties around the country.
In addition to her teaching, Judy has performed extensively on violin, viola, and harp. She was Principal Viola for the St. Joseph Symphony for 15 years as well as for the Northland Symphony, Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City, Liberty Symphony, Starlight Theater, Independence Messiah Orchestra, and Kansas City Ballet Orchestra. She also served as Assistant Principal Viola for the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra and was a featured soloist (Viola) for St. Joseph Symphony, Northland Symphony, and Kansas City Chamber Orchestra.
Judy has also done commercial and concert tour work for various artists and advertisers, including the Kansas City tour stops of The Who, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Vinton, Led Zeppelin and Dennis DeYoung.
Judy has a deep love for sharing the joy of music with young people and helping them discover and nurture the God-given talent within each of them.
Dr. Stephanie Meyer (soprano) currently serves as a voice instructor at Benedictine College and UMKC Conservatory’s Academy/Musical Bridges programs, 2011-present, with previous teaching at Avila University, 2016-2020. Her past stage roles include: Noema (Mother Noah), Nimue (Camelot), Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte), Le feu and Le rossignol (L’enfant et les Sortilèges), Mrs. Fiorentino (Street Scene), La Fée (Cendrillon), Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro), Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and the title role of Donizetti’s Rita. Lyric Opera Kansas City, Kansas City Baroque Consortium, Missouri Oratorio Society, and Taneycomo Festival Orchestral are among her prior concert engagements.
As a champion of interdisciplinary collaboration, she has produced two opéra-ballets entitled Moving Songs: Faith, Hope, and Love in 2009 and Moving Songs: Celebration of Diversity in 2016. Her research on Debussy and the cultural influences surrounding his early vocal works was initially presented on her 2014 lecture recital and reprised with Midwest Chamber Ensemble in 2021.
Meyer holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, a Master of Music from University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from South Dakota State University.
Contact Stephanie Meyer: smeyer@benedictine.edu
Stephanie Meyer's Website: http://www.stephaniemeyer.net/
Trumpet, Horn
Originally from Toronto, Canada, Joon Park is a performer and educator currently based out of Kansas City, Missouri. Joon performs in a variety of different ensembles and genres that has taken him across the United States and internationally. He has performed with the Kansas City Symphony, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and is a member of the Brass Band of Battle Creek and the Fountain City Brass Band. In addition to playing in orchestras and brass bands, Joon has appeared in concert with popular music artists such as Seal and plays in musical theater orchestras.
Joon has led a variety of clinics, masterclasses, and workshops throughout the United States. Recently, Joon was on faculty for the Brass Band of Battle Creek’s Summer Youth Camps, the California Central Coast Orchestra & Jazz Academy, and presented masterclasses for the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Jazz Orchestra. Previously, Joon was a Teaching Artist with Youth Orchestra Salinas (YOSAL), an El Sistema USA member organization that provides tuition-free musical training for at-risk and underserved youth in Salinas, CA.
Accompanist, Piano
Born in South Korea, pianist Seyoung Park has made numerous appearances as recitalist and collaborative pianist in the United States, Europe, and Korea. Seyoung started playing the piano at the age of seven. By the age of eleven, she was attending Seoul Art’s Center Music Prodigy Program. She has won prizes at many competitions including Eumaksekye Competition, Eumyoun Competition and Music Education Journal Competition in Seoul, Korea.
As an active solo performer, she has given solo recitals in various venues including the White Recital Hall at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, Barness Recital Hall at the University of South Florida, Concert Hall in the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Youngsan Art Hall and Dreamforest Art Center in Seoul, Korea. Her performances include performing with the Steinway Series in both the 2018 Late Beethoven Sonata Series and the 2019 series of Art of Fugue. Seyoung has participated in masterclasses, allowing her to work with renowned pedagogues such as Christopher Harding, Arthur Greene, James Giles, Balaz Szokolay, Rebecca Penneys, Fabio Bidini, Logan Skelton and Boris Slutsky. She has actively attended and performed in many music festivals, including the Amalfi Coast Music International Festival (Italy), the Atlantic Music Festival (Unites States), Brancaleoni International Music Festival (Italy), Music Alps Festival (France), Liszt Academy International Music Festival (Budapest), and Yeonum Piano Summer School (South Korea).
As an enthusiastic educator, Seyoung has taught students in different levels of piano, from beginner to advanced. She served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the UMKC Conservatory for three years, where she taught group piano classes and applied secondary piano lessons for undergraduate and graduate students, including music majors as well as non-music majors.
She actively performs as a collaborative pianist and has worked with various musicians from different backgrounds. During her masters program at the University of South Florida, she held a Graduate Assistantship in instrumental accompanying. Her experience ranges from standard repertoire to new music, including premieres of composers’ works.
Seyoung obtained her Master of Music degree in Piano Performance and Chamber Music at the University of South Florida with Dr. Svetozar Ivanov and obtained a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance at Dongduk Women’s University in Seoul with Prof. Hyosun Nah, Dr. Minyoung Lee and Noel McRobbie. She is currently finishing a Doctoral of Musical Arts in Piano Performance with Dr. Thomas Rosenkranz at the UMKC Conservatory. In 2022 Fall, Seyoung joined Benedictine College as collaborative pianist and piano faculty.
Guitar
An active performing musician in all styles, Mr. Riley has released four solo CDs, including Notes to Self, a recording of original compositions. He is also featured on the recordings of many other artists, tours regularly with many national and international artists and has made numerous radio and television appearances. Mr. Riley teaches guitar at Benedictine College and Missouri Western State University. He has degrees in classical guitar performance and commercial music from MWSU, is a certified Suzuki guitar method teacher, member of the Missouri Music Teachers Association and director of the St. Joseph Arts Academy.
Voice
Dr. Kevin Thomas Smith holds Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in voice performance from the University of Kansas, where he studied with John Stephens. He performed a number of opera and musical theater roles at the university, including Flute in Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oronte in Handel’s Alcina, Don Basilio in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, the Norwin Spokesman in the Sherman Brothers’ Over Here, and Mr. One in Joshua Schmidt’s Adding Machine: A Musical.
While a student, Kevin participated in several world premieres, including two recitals of art songs by student composers and a new cantata by Timothy Jon Tharaldson, Floretum, which premiered at Benedictine College in 2021.
In 2020, Kevin sang the role of Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. He has also been a member of LOKC chorus since 2014.
In the summer of 2015, Kevin joined the Janiec Opera Company at the Brevard Music Center, singing Bushy in The Ballad of Baby Doe and the roles of Ethan Krusemark and Johnny Favorite in a workshop of Falling Angel, a new opera by J. Mark Scearce. In 2014, Kevin traveled to Italy as a young artist with Music Academy International, where he sang the title role in Britten’s Albert Herring.
A native of Nebraska, Kevin received Bachelor of Music degrees in voice performance and K-12 vocal music education from Hastings College. In 2016, he returned to Hastings College to sing the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah.
Annija Veitnere teaches Liturgical Music I and II, Functional Keyboard, Recreational Piano, and conducts the Liturgical Choir at Benedictine College. Her studies and teaching experience were cultivated in her native country of Latvia and time in Poland and Italy. While in Rome, she was a Lecturer and cantor at the Music School for the Liturgy, Cantatibus Organis, at the Basilica di San Cecilia in Trastevere. She was a cantor and soprano in the Coro Liturgico Polifonico of the Basilica Papale di San Paolo Fuori le Mura. She also taught Gregorian chant to female Benedictine monasteries and parish choirs in Rome and surrounding areas as well as intensive special summer courses in Gregorian chant and modality. She has held the position of Liturgical Music Director in parishes in Latvia and Poland.
Her studies include degrees and certificates from The Music School for the Liturgy, Toruń, Poland, the Rīga Higher Institute of Religious Studies (affiliated with Pontifical Lateran University in Rome), the Music School for the Liturgy, Cantatibus Organis, Basilica di San Cecilia, and the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of University of San Anselmo in Urbe in Rome.
Jazz Band
Dr. Brian Ward is a keyboardist, educator, composer, and arranger from Portland, Oregon. Brian has performed with the Oregon Symphony, Bobby Torres, Shirley Nanette, Curtis Salgado, Obo Addy, Will Matthews, Bobby Watson, and many others. “City of Roses,” one of the arrangements Ward helped create for Esperanza Spalding's album Radio Music Society, won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement for Vocal Performance. Ward has taught jazz band and jazz piano at Portland State University, Washington State University, University of Idaho, Eastern Washington University, University of Kansas, Ottawa University, and Benedictine College. Brian completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition from the University of Kansas and is enjoying performing jazz and blues in the Kansas City area.
Flutist Christina Webster maintains an active and varied career as orchestral musician, recital soloist, chamber player, and teacher, and has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe. She earned her D.M.A. in Flute Performance at the Conservatory of Music and Dance of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). Winner of a Fulbright Award, she earned a Postgraduate Performance Diploma with Merit at the Royal Academy of Music (London). Ms. Webster earned a Master of Music in Flute Performance at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, and a Bachelor of Music in Flute and Piano Performance, summa cum laude, at the University of Kansas.
She was a winner of the National Flute Association’s 2023 Convention Performers Competition, and recently performed at the 2023 NFA Convention in Phoenix, AZ. Ms. Webster has also been an invited performer at the 2023 Mid-Atlantic (Washington, D.C.) Flute Convention and will be performing and teaching at the 15th World Flutes Festival in Mendoza, Argentina this fall, all three solo flute works of Tōru Takemitsu. She holds the permanent position of Second Flute with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, and she performs as Principal Flute and frequent soloist with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, and as Principal Flute of the Kansas City-based newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. She is also an active substitute/extra flute for the Kansas City Symphony. Ms. Webster has performed as Principal Flute of the Manson Ensemble, the Royal
Academy’s contemporary music ensemble, giving performances at the Oxford Festival of
Contemporary Music, the Duke’s Hall of the Royal Academy of Music, and alongside the London Sinfonietta at the Queen Elizabeth Hall (South Bank Centre, London). She has also performed at the Purcell Room in London, the US Embassy in London, and in various venues throughout the UK, Germany, and Italy.
Ms. Webster has taught at King’s College, London (on behalf of the Royal Academy of Music) and at Kansas State University as Visiting Assistant Professor of Flute. Principal teachers include William Bennett, John Boulton, Kate Hill, and Mary Posses.
Organ
Dr. Lara West earned her Bachelor of Arts in Music from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree and a Master of Music degree in church music from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Her lecture-recital focused on the organ works of Hugo Distler. In addition to teaching organ lessons at Benedictine, Dr. West serves as Music Minister and Organist at Trinity Lutheran Church in Mission, Kansas. Dr. West studied church music and worked as a church musician in Germany, and continues to enjoy German language and culture.
Piano
Swiss-American pianist Olivia Zimmermann has performed and taught internationally as well as in the United States. She has given concerts, masterclasses, and private lessons in Switzerland, Norway, Finland, Texas, Louisiana, Illinois, Kansas, and Missouri. She holds piano performance degrees from the University of Texas at San Antonio, Northwestern University in Chicago, and the University of Kansas. As a 2013 Fulbright scholar, she studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. There, she researched folk music influences on Sibelius’s piano music under the tutelage of Erik T. Tawaststjerna, whose father was the composer’s personal biographer. Her past teachers include concert pianist Steven Spooner, internationally recognized pedagogue Scott McBride Smith, and award winning pianist and professor, Alan Chow. She has performed in masterclasses for clinicians Ursula Oppens, William Westney, and Robin McCabe, and has placed in several solo piano competitions throughout high school and college. Her performances have been featured live on KHOU radio in Houston, TX, and on the Great Day SA television show in San Antonio.
Dr. Zimmermann has more than twenty years of teaching experience and is well-versed as an administrator. She served as director for the KU Community Music School, where she also taught private and group classes for KU music majors. While in Finland, she gave lectures and performances for the Fulbright Foundation and taught lessons at the Tyttöyen Talo, a center for at-risk youth in Helsinki. She was on faculty at the Kansas City School of Music, where she helped shape the curriculum in use today. She adjudicates local, regional, and national events of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) and the National Federation of Music Clubs (NFMC). Her students consistently receive awards and recognition in MTNA and NFMC events. Dr. Zimmermann currently maintains a full private studio in the North Kansas City area, holds an adjunct position at Benedictine College, and teaches masterclasses for the Artist Musician Program at The Music Clubhouse in Lawrence, KS.
Education
Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance, University of Kansas
Master of Music in Piano Performance, Northwestern University in Chicago
Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance, University of Texas at San Antonio
Fulbright research grant, Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, Finland
Administrative Assistant
Jessica is in charge of organization and communication among all the professors, she schedules events and meetings, coordinates operations within the department, and keeps everything running smoothly.
