Board of Trustees

Sam Holland

Chair

Dean, Meadows School of the Arts, and Algur H. Meadows Chair and Professor of Music, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX; educator, clinician, co-author of over 75 critically recognized publications including The Music Tree.

Craig Sale

Vice Chair

Teacher, adjudicator, workshop clinician and performer. Senior Editor for the Piano Magazine; co-author of The Music Tree 3: Activities and The Music Tree 4: Activities (Alfred Publishing); Educational Consultant for the Frances Clark Library for Piano Students; former Director and Instructor, Preparatory and Community Piano Program, Concordia University Chicago; Visiting Professor, Piano Pedagogy, Concordia University Chicago.

Leslie Vial Owsley

Treasurer, past chair

Beverly Lapp

Secretary

Beverly Lapp is Vice President and Academic Dean of  the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Indiana. Originally from southeastern Pennsylvania, Beverly was previously on the music faculty at Goshen College from 1995-2018.

Marvin R. Blickenstaff

past president

Past President, Director of Program for Excellence in Piano Study (PEPS), The New School for Music Study; clinician, author and editor.

Tony Caramia

Tony Caramia teaches at the Eastman School of Music (1990-present), where he directs the Piano Pedagogy Studies, coordinates the Class Piano Program, and teaches applied piano and beginning jazz piano. Awards include the Frances Clark Center National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy Lifetime Achievement Award (2021), and the Inaugural Outstanding Service Recognition Award (2019), and the SUNY Fredonia Outstanding Achievement Award (2010).

William Creager

Managing Partner of Santa Clara Minerals LLC, and previously Director of Client Analytics and Modeling at Bank of America / Merrill Lynch. Former Peace Corps Volunteer in the Gambia and AAAS Fellow at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. Currently a student at the New School for Music Study.

Susanna Garcia

Dr. Susanna Garcia is Professor Emerita at the University of Louisiana School of Music. She held the Louisiana Board of Regents/Ruth Stodghill Girard Endowed Professorship (2000-2021), and for many years, served as Coordinator of Keyboard Studies and as Scholarship Coordinator for the School of Music. During her 31-year tenure she taught applied piano, group piano, piano pedagogy, lectured in the Interdisciplinary Humanities program, and directed the Pedagogy Lab Program, an internship program for piano pedagogy students.

Andrew Gomory

CEO of Lingraphica, provider of devices and software for people who have lost their ability to speak due to stroke; spent 10 years in the music business starting a band, recording studio and record label. Currently a student at the New School for Music Study.

Joel Harrison

Dr. Joel Harrison was President/CEO and Artistic Director of the American Pianists Association for over 20 years, retiring in 2021. He continues as Senior Artistic Advisor, overseeing the Awards and artistic programs. He was previously a faculty member at Davidson College and Mississippi State University. Joel holds degrees from UNC-CH, Indiana University and Northwestern University. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including recently being named Sagamore of the Wabash, the highest honor given by the State of Indiana. 

E.L. Lancaster

Piano faculty member at California State University Northridge. He holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University and established the masters and doctoral programs in piano pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma. Lancaster is a co-author of Alfred’s Premier Piano Course, Music for Little Mozarts, and Alfred’s Group Piano for Adults. In 2019, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy and the Outstanding Alumnus in Fine Arts Award from Murray State University.

Phyllis Alpert Lehrer

Phyllis Alpert Lehrer is professor emerita of piano at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ.   A member of the artist faculty of the Westminster Conservatory, she regularly presents lectures, master classes and performs internationally as a soloist and in chamber ensembles. She has co-edited over 20 publications of intermediate to early advanced literature for Carl Fischer and Alfred publishers.

 Recent honors include the Frances Clark Center Lifetime Achievement Award and the Westminster Alumni Merit Award.

Jane Magrath

Jane Magrath’s work in the area of standard classical teaching literature has been central to the current revival of interest in this music throughout the United States. She has over forty volumes in print, including Piano Literature for Teaching and Performance published by Piano Education Press, a division of the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy. Her music editions are used widely throughout the world.

William Chapman Nyaho

William Chapman Nyaho serves as piano faculty at Pacific Lutheran University and summer faculty of Interlochen Center for the Arts and maintains a private studio. An active performer, he gives recitals and concerts in Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean and in cities across the United States where he advocates music by composers of African descent.

Chee-Hwa Tan

Chee-Hwa Tan has served as the Head of Piano Pedagogy at the University of Denver Lamont School of Music, as well as on the piano pedagogy faculties at the Oberlin Conservatory and Southern Methodist University. Ms. Tan is the author of internationally acclaimed A Child’s Garden of Verses and other piano collections. Her music is published by Piano Safari; with selections included in the Repertoire and Study series of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Canada, and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London.