Innovating for the Future
In-Person Summit and Conference: July 23-26, 2025 | Online: June 7-8, 2025
The Piano Conference: NCKP 2025
Community. Creativity. Impact.
Keynotes and Guest Artists
Gilles Comeau is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a senior scientist at the Institute of Mental Health Research at The Royal, the founding director of the University of Ottawa Music and Health Research Institute, the director and principal researcher of the Piano Pedagogy Research Laboratory, and a professor at the School of Music at the University of Ottawa. He conducts multidisciplinary research on music and health, including the study of music and wellbeing for people with dementia, the impact of music on individuals experiencing mental illness, and the investigation of various interventions for musicians’ mental health.
Sarah Hoover serves as Associate Dean for Innovation in the Arts and Health at the Peabody Institute, where she is responsible for advancing initiatives that link the performing arts and health within Peabody, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and entities within the university and Baltimore community. Since arriving at Peabody, Hoover has advocated for the health of Peabody’s musicians and dancers by developing curriculum and co-curricular programs to prevent injury and optimize performance, facilitated the creation of the Peabody Clinic for Performing Artists, and supported the start-up of a research lab in performance science. With partners across Johns Hopkins University and Health System, her team is building out a transdisciplinary center of performing arts and health to advance health in and through the performing arts, encompassing research, clinical care, education, arts services, and advocacy.
Hoover’s research in the field of arts in health has led to the development of bedside and lobby music programs throughout the Johns Hopkins Health System and the development of creative aging residencies and sensory-friendly concerts. She has helped to develop Peabody Prescribe, a community arts entity within Peabody Preparatory, offering arts experiences developed in collaboration with researchers and clinicians from Johns Hopkins Medicine that support health and well-being. Along with her book, Music as Care: Artistry in the Hospital Environment, these clinical and community programs have built novel educational and experiential career pathways for musicians in arts-in-health contexts. As part of her commitment to artist workforce development, Hoover serves as board member for the National Organization for Arts in Health. Prior to her appointment at Peabody, Hoover was a performer, teacher of singing, music journalist, and festival director and received degrees from Yale College (BA) and the Peabody Institute (DMA.)
Stanford Thompson (he/him) founded and led music education organization Play On Philly, served as the founding board chair of El Sistema USA, and founded and currently serves as executive director of Equity Arc. In those roles, he has led complex strategic planning and organizational design projects for local and national initiatives that provide equitable arts access for communities and artists.
As a Principal with Goldsmith Strategies, he has guided the strategic development of dozens of organizations across the United States. He has also collaborated with WolfBrown on strategic planning, program evaluation, and establishing new ventures with the support of national institutional funders.
Stanford serves on the faculty of the Global Leaders Institute and regularly speaks at major arts and business conferences and institutions. He has been a TED Fellow, presenting on music as a powerful tool for positive personal and societal change. Stanford holds degrees from The Curtis Institute of Music and New England Conservatory.
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Tracy Cowden is the Roland K. Blumberg Endowed Professor in Music and Director of the School of Music at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). As a pianist, her recent work includes performing in health care settings in person and virtually, teaching music in health courses, and facilitating interdisciplinary research regarding music and health; she is a member of the Brain Health Consortium and an Advancing Next-Gen Faculty Leadership Fellow at UTSA. Dr. Cowden is an active advocate for arts in health and is the founder of On-Corps, the first beginning band program for veterans in the nation.
Named a “Gifted Artist” by the New York Times, Dr. Patricio Molina has gained a reputation as a composer, pianist, and educator. He regularly appears on stages such as Carnegie Hall and OPERA America. Dr. Molina is a Yamaha Artist. The New Jersey Youth Symphony, White Snake Projects, and Ulysses Quartet are among many who have recognized his talents with commissioned works. Inspiration for his compositions include his Chilean-Syrian heritage, and his experience as an immigrant. His accomplishments in the field of arts education were recognized by the New Jersey Education Association with their prestigious Award for Excellence. He earned the first double doctorate in the history of Rutgers University. He is Founder and President of the Pan-Global Music Initiative (501c3). Patricio is engaged in a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Universidad Católica Nordestana (DR) and is writing a book for student pianists based on Caribbean melodies (2026). Learn more at www.patriciofmolina.com.
Roberta Rust has concertized to critical acclaim, appearing in recital at prestigious concert halls worldwide and collaborating with leading ensembles. Her artistry has been enthusiastically hailed for recordings on the Navona, Centaur, and Protone labels. Rust serves as Artist Faculty-Piano/Professor and head of the piano department at the Lynn University Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, Florida. During the summers she has taught at the Adamant Music School in Vermont and the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival in Tampa. She has given master classes throughout the Americas and Asia and is also a widely respected adjudicator, having served on the juries of several noted competitions. For more information visit www.robertarust.com.
Dr. Rochelle Sennet (suh-NET) has established herself as a well-known performer, teacher, and scholar. Her recital programs showcase her versatility at the keyboard, with frequent performances of works by J.S. Bach and Black composers such as H. Leslie Adams, Jeffrey Mumford, James Lee III, and Pulitzer-Prize winning composer George Walker. She received the Bachelor of Music degree from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Master of Music degree from University of Michigan, Artist Diploma from Texas Christian University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from University of Illinois. She recently completed and released Bach to Black: Suites for Piano, in three volumes/nine discs, on Albany Records, which include the complete suites and partitas by J.S. Bach as well as nineteen suites by seventeen Black composers. Her recordings are regularly featured on radio stations and programs nationwide and internationally. She is the inaugural Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the College of Fine and Applied Arts at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she also serves as Professor of Piano in the School of Music, and is a faculty affiliate in the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center (REEEC).
Dr. Sennet is a Voting Member of The Recording Academy, a Yamaha Artist, and she is a Music Teachers National Association Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM).
“Warmly expressive Karen Walwyn,” stated by critic Joshua Barone of the New York Times, remarked on a performance with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra of the Concerto in One Movement by Florence Price as “an infectious pleasure.” Walwyn appeared on PBS Now Hear This and in the Emmy-nominated film The Caged Bird as a Florence Price artist, and has recorded six albums of music by composers of African descent on Albany Records label. Walwyn received numerous five-star reviews for her recently released Price album recordings and won a Global Award for her album of her own compositions for solo piano, Reflections on 9/11.
Walwyn is on faculty at Berklee College of Music as Professor of Piano.
Winner of the Geneva International Competition, pianist William Westney personifies a rare combination of abilities, having achieved international distinction as concert artist, author, and award-winning educator. He has concertized on four continents and soloed with Houston Symphony, l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and others. Westney’s trailblazing performance workshop “The Un-Master Class” ® was profiled in a New York Times feature article and has been given at major conservatories worldwide. His bestselling first book The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self (2003) has become a pedagogical classic. Westney’s latest book is Eros at the Piano: The Life-Energy of Classical Music (2023).
Celebration Concert
Connor Chee is a renowned Diné (Navajo) composer and pianist celebrated for his evocative blend of classical music with traditional Navajo elements. His compositions often draw inspiration from his cultural heritage, seamlessly weaving together Diné melodies and classical piano techniques. A recipient of multiple awards, Connor’s work has been featured in prestigious concert halls and festivals across the globe. His albums, praised for their emotional depth and technical mastery, showcase his unique ability to tell stories through music. Beyond his performances and recordings, Connor is dedicated to music education and cultural preservation, sharing his knowledge and passion with the next generation of musicians.
Susanna Garcia and William Chapman Nyaho met during doctoral studies at the University of Texas at Austin during the 1980s. Their musical collaboration began when they both began teaching at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in the early 1990s. Since then, they have gained recognition throughout the United States, Europe, and Africa with programs that blend standard repertoire with newer works highlighting the diversity of voices and musical styles that can be found in classical music. Their ensemble has been described as “one head, one heart, but four hands.” Their recent recording, Five by Four, was released in April on MSR Classics.
Pianist Derek Hartman has established an international career as a versatile performer and a dedicated educator. He has performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and he received top prizes in the Washington International Piano Competition, the PianoArts North American Piano Competition, and the Music Teachers’ National Association Young Artist Piano Competition. In 2024, Hartman was appointed as Lecturer of Piano at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, and he previously completed the Post-Graduate Pedagogy Fellowship Program at The New School for Music Study. He is currently a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the Yale School of Music, and his former teachers include Boris Slutsky, James Giles, Paul Wirth, and Sarah Miller.
Currently Chair of the Roser Keyboard and Piano Department at the University of Colorado in Boulder, pianist Jennifer Hayghe has performed in solo recitals and made orchestral appearances throughout the world, including the United States, Central America, Europe and Asia. Hayghe was the last student of the legendary artist-teacher Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School, where she received her bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees. She is in demand as a teacher and performer throughout the United States, and also sustains an active career as a chamber musician. This is her first time attending the National Conference for Keyboard Pedagogy.
Catherine Kautsky, the George and Marjorie Olsen Chandler Professor of Music and Chair of Keyboard Studies at Lawrence University, in Appleton, WI, has been lauded by the New York Times as a pianist “who can play Mozart and Schubert as though their sentiments and habits of speech coincided exactly with hers.” Ms. Kautsky has performed on six continents, and is the winner of the Excellence in Teaching Award and the Faculty Convocation Award at Lawrence and the Arts Institute Creative Arts Award at UW-Madison. Her work includes the book, Debussy’s Paris: Piano Portraits of the Belle Époque, recordings of the Debussy Preludes and Brahms Violin Sonatas, and a 24- segment lecture-recital series for Great Courses entitled Great Piano Works Explained.
Dr. April Kim serves on the piano faculty at St. Olaf College where she teaches applied lessons, class piano, piano pedagogy, and coaches chamber music. As an advocate for new music, Dr. Kim regularly performs works by living composers and she is a member of 10th Wave, a new music chamber collective based in the Twin Cities. Additionally, she has presented and performed at numerous conferences and festivals, and directed the Inaugural Korean Composers Festival held at St. Olaf College.
American pianist Carol Leone is Chair and Professor of Piano Studies at SMU Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas. Her professional training included study with the legendary Polish pianist Mieczysław Horszowski at the Curtis Institute of Music. Dr. Leone’s many awards include First Prize in the National Beethoven Sonata Piano competition. Leone’s solo recording, Change of Keys on MSR Classics garnered two 2016 Silver Global Awards.
Dr. Leone has performed, taught, and presented internationally for over four decades and has energized a worldwide movement to transform pianists’ artistry and wellness through her advocacy of alternatively sized piano keyboards.
Hailed by the New York Times as a “virtuoso pianist” Artina McCain has an international career as a speaker, educator, and artist. As a recitalist, her credits include performances at Wigmore Hall and Barbican Centre in London, Weill Hall at Carnegie and Merkin Hall in New York City. Other highlights include guest appearances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra and others.
Dedicated to promoting the works of Black and underrepresented composers, McCain has multiple award-winning albums and a book of 24 Traditional African American Folk Songs published by Hal Leonard. More info at artinamccain.com.
American pianist Spencer Myer is one of the most respected artists on today’s concert stage. He has been a soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and has made two solo appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall. Winner of the First Prize in the 2008 New Orleans and 2004 UNISA (South Africa) International Piano Competitions, as well as the American Pianists Association’s 2006 Classical Fellowship, he was a member of Astral Artists from 2003 to 2010. Currently Associate Professor of Piano at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, he has released four CDs on the Steinway & Sons label, and most recently released Chopin’s Four Impromptus on their Steinway Classics series.
Roberta Rust has concertized to critical acclaim, appearing in recital at prestigious concert halls worldwide and collaborating with leading ensembles. Her artistry has been enthusiastically hailed for recordings on the Navona, Centaur, and Protone labels. Rust serves as Artist Faculty-Piano/Professor and head of the piano department at the Lynn University Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, Florida. During the summers she has taught at the Adamant Music School in Vermont and the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival in Tampa. She has given master classes throughout the Americas and Asia and is also a widely respected adjudicator, having served on the juries of several noted competitions. For more information visit www.robertarust.com.
Dr. Rochelle Sennet (suh-NET) has established herself as a well-known performer, teacher, and scholar. Her recital programs showcase her versatility at the keyboard, with frequent performances of works by J.S. Bach and Black composers such as H. Leslie Adams, Jeffrey Mumford, James Lee III, and Pulitzer-Prize winning composer George Walker. She received the Bachelor of Music degree from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Master of Music degree from University of Michigan, Artist Diploma from Texas Christian University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from University of Illinois. She recently completed and released Bach to Black: Suites for Piano, in three volumes/nine discs, on Albany Records, which include the complete suites and partitas by J.S. Bach as well as nineteen suites by seventeen Black composers. Her recordings are regularly featured on radio stations and programs nationwide and internationally. She is the inaugural Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the College of Fine and Applied Arts at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she also serves as Professor of Piano in the School of Music, and is a faculty affiliate in the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center (REEEC).
Dr. Sennet is a Voting Member of The Recording Academy, a Yamaha Artist, and she is a Music Teachers National Association Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM).
Described as “simply phenomenal” (New Britain Herald), pianist Alexa Stier has performed extensively both in the United States and Europe. Alexa is a prizewinner of the Messiaen International Piano Competition, George Enescu Piano Competition, the Orléans International Piano Competition, and Sheepdrove Piano Competition. Alexa is the founder and artistic director of the ContemporArt Chamber Music Festival based in her hometown, Satu Mare, Romania. She holds degrees from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Yale School of Music, where she is currently a doctoral student. Alexa is a faculty member at The New School for Music Study.
Pianist Nicholas Susi is Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of South Carolina, Associate Director of the Southeastern Piano Festival, and President of the American Matthay Association. His artistry has been recognized through top prizes in such competitions as the NFMC Young Artist Award, while his research has been awarded prestigious grants from the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst amongst others. He has published in American Music Teacher, the Journal of the American Liszt Society, and in The Frances Clark Center’s From the Artist Bench video library. For more information, please visit www.nicholas-susi.com.
Todd Van Kekerix is Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of Houston. He has over fifteen years of high-level teacher training and spent nine years at The New School for Music Study in Princeton, NJ, as a teaching artist. His performance highlights include recitals at Carnegie Hall in New York City and at the Esterhaězy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria. His research in keyboard music making, music and wellness, teacher expertise, and popular music pedagogy garnered recognition through publications such as Psychology of Music and Piano Magazine. During his downtime, he enjoys downhill skiing and exploring new gastronomic delights and cookbooks.
“Warmly expressive Karen Walwyn,” stated by critic Joshua Barone of the New York Times, remarked on a performance with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra of the Concerto in One Movement by Florence Price as “an infectious pleasure.” Walwyn appeared on PBS Now Hear This and in the Emmy-nominated film The Caged Bird as a Florence Price artist, and has recorded six albums of music by composers of African descent on Albany Records label. Walwyn received numerous five-star reviews for her recently released Price album recordings and won a Global Award for her album of her own compositions for solo piano, Reflections on 9/11.
Walwyn is on faculty at Berklee College of Music as Professor of Piano.
Steinway Artist Jerry Wong has performed internationally in major halls including the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, National Concert Hall of Taipei, National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., Opera City Hall in Tokyo, Severance Hall in Cleveland and Weill Recital Hall in New York City. He has recorded on the Albany, MSR Classics and MOVE labels. An Associate Professor of Piano and Head of Keyboard at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in Australia, his masterclasses have brought him to Australia, China, Hong Kong, Italy, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, and throughout the United States.