Join Leah Claiborne in a more intimate and collaborative setting, where you will have the opportunity to pose questions, develop your ideas, and refine them through thoughtful discussion.
Registration and Zoom link sent monthly via email to participants in our Community Impact Session series.
Mingle with professionals to discuss strategies for fostering professional wellbeing. Discover roadblocks to finding balance in your workspace and explore how to manage and positively contribute to your creative and professional development.
The Frances Clark Center is delighted to be exhibiting at the Utah Music Teacher’s Association 2024 State Conference at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah. Meet our representative, Heather Smith, at our exhibit booth! Stop by to say hello; register for The Piano Conference: NCKP 2025; browse and purchase our print resources, courses, and more; and enter our giveaway.
Did you know? If you are a Utah resident, you are also eligible to receive select discounts online, even if you cannot attend the conference! Enter our giveaway to share your contact information.
All full-length courses! $39-$179 $31.20-143.20. Go to pianoinspires.com/courses to browse.
The Frances Clark Center is delighted to be exhibiting at the Illinois State Music Teacher’s Association 2024 State Conference at Millikin University, Decatur, IL. Meet our representatives, Sarah Leonard and Anthony Ty, at the exhibit booth! Stop by to say hello; register for The Piano Conference: NCKP 2025; browse and purchase our print resources, courses, and more; and enter our giveaway.
Did you know? If you are a Illinois resident, you are also eligible to receive select discounts online, even if you cannot attend the conference! Enter our giveaway to share your contact information.
All full-length courses! $39-$179 $31.20-143.20. Go to pianoinspires.com/courses to browse.
The Frances Clark Center is delighted to be exhibiting at the California Association of Professional Music Teachers 2024 State Conference in Long Beach, CA. Meet our representative Michaela Boros at the exhibit booth! Stop by to say hello; register for The Piano Conference: NCKP 2025; browse and purchase our print resources, courses, and more; and enter our giveaway.
Did you know? If you are a California resident, you are also eligible to receive select discounts online, even if you cannot attend the conference! Enter our giveaway to share your contact information.
All full-length courses! $39-$179 $31.20-143.20. Go to pianoinspires.com/courses to browse.
The Frances Clark Center is pleased to announce our second year of Collegiate Connections to highlight the outstanding work of pedagogy and collegiate groups. The Collegiate Connections program provides opportunities for collegiate classes and groups to submit term and annual projects. Selected groups will be featured in two events in Spring 2025:
Our goal is to foster a greater sense of community and peer connection through this forum for the exchange of ideas and dialogue from across the country and beyond.
Selected projects may also be included in various Piano Inspires digital and publishing spaces, such as Inspiring Artistry, From the Artist Bench, Discovery Page, Piano Magazine and Piano Inspires Kids. In addition, university and faculty mentor names of all proposal submitters will be recognized in an upcoming issue of Piano Magazine, on PianoInspires.com, and in other Frances Clark Center communications.
Call For Participation: We invite collegiate groups in pedagogy, repertoire, and related performance classes along with their faculty to participate. Projects may cover a wide range of topics such as creative teaching, lecture and musical presentations, community engagement, and business entrepreneurship. We welcome all group proposals; note that proposals by individual presenters will not be considered.
The Call for Participation Portal is now open. Click here to review proposal requirements and submit. The deadline to submit proposals is Monday, March 31, 2025 at 11:59 P.M. Pacific.
Selected collegiate groups will be notified in early April 2025 and will be featured as presenters for the Collegiate Connections webinar and The Piano Conference online event. Registration for both the webinar (free) and online conference (registration, with scholarships available) will be required for all presenters.
We welcome you to register now for The Piano Conference to join us as we celebrate, connect, and share innovative work inspired by the next generation of piano educators and trailblazers. Note there is an NCKP scholarship application available for current students. Registration for the Collegiate Connections webinar in April forthcoming.
Join your colleagues in this virtual gathering to discuss how to promote spaces of belonging in our professional teaching and scholarly work. Share and reflect on thriving professionally as your authentic self and identity.
How do you advance your professionalism? Gather among professionals to discuss ways to advance careers and to get involved in opportunities at the Frances Clark Center.
The Piano Conference: NCKP 2025 seeks to explore the challenges and opportunities facing our international community at this inflection point for the profession.
Returning to the Westin Chicago Lombard Hotel (Lombard, IL) from July 23-26, 2025, The Piano Conference includes a new, innovative in-person summit and conference. The opening two-day summit engages the full community and provides a gathering for all to collectively share, dialogue, and exchange ideas. The facilitated summit will include a design-thinking process to collectively consider the immediate challenges, opportunities, and global impact of our field. Three main areas of focus include: 1) Teacher education curriculum 2) Teaching practices 3) New professionals. Outcome goals of the participatory summit are a vision document and action plan for the profession at large.
Multiple calls for participation include peer-reviewed proposals, teaching demonstrations, performances, and posters.
The Piano Conference: NCKP 2025 seeks to explore the challenges and opportunities facing our international community at this inflection point for the profession. Join us online on Saturday, June 7 through Sunday, June 8, 2025. Sessions, performances, and keynotes will be delivered through an engaging virtual platform. Participate in a wide range of programming, live discussion, and community networking with attendees from all over the world.
For recent grads, the question of “what are you doing next after graduation?” can instill excitement, consternation, confusion, and a host of other feelings. Share your questions with peers who are also navigating this space, along with mentors in the field.
The Frances Clark Center continues to celebrate our newest publication, Inspired Piano Teaching by Marvin Blickenstaff. Join Marvin and facilitator Sara Ernst for a Q&A session that explores themes and content of each section within the book, including time for attendee questions. Free registration, RSVP today!
Plus, Special Offer! Receive a 20% discount on Inspired Piano Teaching by Marvin Blickenstaff during our special preorder and launch sale. Click here to order. Use discount code MARVINPARTY20 at checkout.*
*Valid until Thursday, February 29 at 11:59 PM Pacific. Shipping will begin as early as March 2024.
Gather with young professionals and colleagues to discuss cultivating diverse teaching spaces in private studios and higher education, belonging, and developing connections among peers. Share and discuss DEI teaching practices and experiences and build your network of professional peers.
The second Peer Connections: Building Professional Spaces for Belonging will be held on Friday, February 23, 2024, 6:00-7:30 PM EST. Join us as professionals in our community share and discuss DEI teaching practices and experiences and build your network of professional peers.
Join the Frances Clark Center to celebrate Marvin Blickenstaff’s new book Inspired Piano Teaching. This Zoom event will be held on Tuesday, January 30, 2024 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM Eastern Time. Party host E.L. Lancaster will host a Q&A with author Marvin Blickenstaff and editor Pete Jutras. Time to mingle with Marvin, Pete, E.L., and fellow pianists and teachers will follow. Free registration, RSVP today!
Collegiate Connections, a professional engagement initiative for students and faculty, supports the innovative work of emerging leaders, scholars, and artists. The program provides opportunities for collegiate groups and classes to submit term and annual projects to be showcased in an online national event. Projects may cover a wide range of topics such as creative teaching projects, lecture and musical presentations, community engagement, social justice, business entrepreneurship projects, and more. The program aims to foster peer connections and collaboration through the exchange of ideas, scholarship, and dialogue from across the country.
The Frances Clark Center is pleased to announce the selected proposals for our Collegiate Connections event on Friday, April 26, 2024 from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM Eastern. Congratulations to:
Women Composers for Intermediate-Level Students
Ísis Cardoso, Gregório dos Santos Oliveira, Caroline Silva
Georgia State University; Sérgio Gallo, faculty mentor
Diversifying Soundscapes from Beginners’ Teaching Methods
Justin Gjata, Boqian Jing, Anna Pastrana, Kyungmin Yang
Roosevelt University; Yeeseon Kwon, faculty mentor
Music and Storytelling: Developing Imagination through the Use of AI
Ashley-May Burkhardt, Le Binh Anh Nguyen
University of Cincinnati; Michelle Conda, faculty mentor
Unveiling Mel Bonis’ Musical Tales: A Journey through “Album pour les Tout-Petits, Op. 103”
Bradley Bee, Helena Rosa, Ivy Smith
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; Lynn Worcester Jones, faculty mentor
Professor’s Corner: Teaching Masterclasses
Khanh Nhi Luong (Michigan), Le Binh Anh Nguyen (Cincinnati), Jasmine Wong (Michigan)
University of Cincinnati / University of Michigan; John Ellis, faculty mentor
Making a Music Major: Helping Your Student Successfully Transition to College
Lizzie French, Sharon Hui
University of Colorado Boulder; Jennifer Hayghe, faculty mentor
The Frances Clark Center sincerely thanks all sixteen universities and their faculty mentors who submitted proposals for the 2024 Collegiate Connections event. We look forward to highlighting the outstanding work of pedagogy and collegiate groups and to foster global community engagement among our collegiate cohorts and faculty. Register today to attend the event!
* This event will be held live and will not be available for replay. In addition, note that the Call for Proposals has now closed as of April 3, 2024.