October 14-15, 2010
Hastings College, Hastings, Nebraska
Guest Artist: Andrew Cooperstock
Heralded as a “technically impeccable and musically profound” pianist, Andrew Cooperstock performs widely as soloist and chamber musician and has appeared throughout five continents and in most of the fifty states.
Winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs Artist Competition and the New Orleans International Piano Competition, Andrew Cooperstock has performed at New York’s Alice Tully, Merkin, and Weill concert halls, and at the United Nations. He has been featured in recitals and concerto appearances at the Chautauqua, Brevard, and Round Top international music festivals, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, and in such global centers as Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, New Orleans, Minneapolis, Baltimore, London, Hamburg, Geneva, the Hague, Riga, Canberra, Lima, Kiev, Seoul, and Sapporo. Next season he will make his African debut.
An advocate for new music, Andrew Cooperstock has premiered works by such American composers as Lowell Liebermann and Aaron Copland. He has also commissioned works by Eric Stern, Robert Starer, and Dan Welcher.
Sought after as a chamber musician, Cooperstock has performed with the Takacs Quartet, the Ying Quartet, and the Colorado Chamber Players, and he is a founding member of Trio Contraste, which specializes in commissioning and performing contemporary music for piano, violin, and clarinet.
With violinist William Terwilliger, as Opus Two, Cooperstock has recorded the complete works for piano and violin by Copland. The award-winning Opus Two has been internationally recognized for its “divine phrases, impelling rhythm, elastic ensemble and stunning sounds,” as well as its commitment to expanding the violin Ð piano duo repertoire. The duo has appeared throughout North and South America, Europe, and Australia, and it made its Asian debut in 2006 with performances across China, Korea, Japan, and the Russian Far East. With cellist Andres Diaz, Opus Two has also recorded chamber music by Lowell Liebermann (Albany Records) and Paul Schoenfield (Azica Records). Opus Two’s next recording, music of Leonard Bernstein (Naxos) features new arrangements by Broadway legend Eric Stern and collaborations with Broadway actress-singer Marin Mazzie.
Andrew Cooperstock’s media credits include performances on National Public Radio, WFMT Chicago, WQXR New York, KUT Austin, and on Minnesota Public Radio, Radio France, and the Australian and British Broadcasting Corporations.
He has served as juror for the New Orleans International Piano Competition, the Music Teachers National Association national competitions, and the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artists Competition, among others, and he has presented master classes widely, from Beijing to Nice to Vladivostok.
A graduate of the Juilliard School and the Cincinnati and Peabody Conservatories, Dr. Cooperstock studied with Abbey Simon, David Bar-Illan, and Walter Hautzig, as well as with collaborative pianist Samuel Sanders. He is currently a senior member of the keyboard faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder and chair of the piano department at Rocky Ridge Music Center.
Guest Clinician: E.L. Lancaster
E. L. Lancaster brings a variety of teaching experiences to his position as Vice President/Keyboard Editor-in-Chief of Alfred Publishing Company. From 1979 to 1998 he was on the faculty of the University of Oklahoma, Norman, where he taught courses in piano pedagogy and coordinated the group piano program. Lancaster established the masters and doctoral programs in piano pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma in 1980. During his tenure there, he served as major professor for over fifty doctoral dissertations in the field of piano pedagogy. His students serve on faculties of colleges and universities and operate independent piano studios throughout the country. Simultaneously, he taught pre-college students in the Piano Pedagogy Laboratory Program combining group and private instruction. In addition, he and his wife, Gayle Kowalchyk, operated a large independent piano studio in Norman, Oklahoma from 1981 until 1996.
From 1971 to 1979, Lancaster was on the faculty of William Rainey Harper College, Palatine, Illinois, where he taught piano and group piano. During the summers of 1973-1975, he served on the summer faculty of the National Music Camp, Interlochen, Michigan. A native of Dover, Tennessee, he holds degrees from Murray (KY) State University, the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University.
Lancaster has served as National Chairman of Group Piano and National Chairman of Student Chapters for MTNA. He has held offices in the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy including Chair of the Administration/Pedagogy Liaison Committee and is co-chair of the Music Industry/Pedagogy Liaison Committee for the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy.
He has received numerous teaching awards from the University of Oklahoma including the Regents Award for Superior Teaching (1984), Associates Distinguished Lectureship (1987), Provost’s Outstanding Academic Advising Award (1996), and Outstanding Faculty Award in the College of Fine Arts (1996). In 1991, he was awarded a David Ross Boy Professorship, named in honor of the first OU President and given to faculty members who excel in teaching, counseling and guiding students.
He has presented workshops for teachers throughout the United States, Canada, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Korea, and the Peoples Republic of China. He is the author or co-author of over 375 publications designed for students of all ages from pre-school through adults published by Alfred Music Publishing Company (including the Music for Little Mozarts series and Alfred’s Premier Piano Course). He relies on his broad-based teaching background to chart future directions for Alfred’s keyboard catalogue as head of the piano team.
