PRESS RELEASE: 16 August 2022
Prof. Tony Caramia and Dr. Susanna Garcia appointed to the Frances Clark Center Board of Trustees
The Frances Clark Center Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the appointment of two new board members; Tony Caramia and Susanna Garcia.
“It is a great honor to have been selected to the Frances Clark Center Board of Trustees. I eagerly look forward to adding my experience and ideas to the Board’s quest to educate teachers and students to their development of a lifelong involvement in music making. I am especially excited to work alongside such a distinguished and varied panel of dedicated fellow teachers.” – Tony Caramia
“I have always held the Frances Clark Center in high esteem for its significant contributions to the field of piano teaching and learning. As a very young child I learned from the series Look and Listen, one of the first publications to bear Frances Clark’s name. It is an amazing honor to serve the mission of the Center and to work alongside so many other dedicated folks.” – Susanna Garcia
“I am thrilled to welcome Tony Caramia and Susie Garcia to the Board of Trustees of the Frances Clark Center. Their creativity and their dedication and long service to the profession of pedagogy will bring new insights to the Board and enhance the work of the Center. I look forward to working with them.” – Leslie Owsley, Chair, Board of Trustees
Professor Tony Caramia: Three extraordinary teachers, Claudette Sorel, James Lyke, and Frances Clark, aided in launching Professor Tony Caramia’s 45-plus-year career as a pedagogue, clinician, adjudicator, composer, author, and solo and collaborative performer.
Caramia has conducted numerous workshops in jazz piano for teachers at MTNA National and several State Conventions, the International Association for Jazz Educators (IAJE) Teacher Training Institutes, the National Piano Teachers Institute, the International Workshops, the European Piano Teachers Association International Conference in London, the Australian Piano Pedagogy Conference in Adelaide, and the Institute of Registered Music Teachers National Conference in New Zealand. He recently performed and lectured at the Dakota Sky International Piano Festival and the Meetings on Piano Pedagogy at the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil.
Caramia treasures the relationship he had with publishers The New School for Music Study Press and Belwin Mills Publishing Corp./CPP Belwin, Inc., for whom he composed and/or arranged several solo and duet pieces and collections. A sample of his works with current publishers follows: “Mixed-Up Rag” (Frederick Harris Publications, RCM Celebration Series, Piano Etudes, Level 7, 2015), collections American Treasures (Alfred Music Publishing, Jazz Performer Series, 2011), Sounds of Jazz, Book 1 and 2, and Six Sketches (Alfred), Suite Dreams and Jazz Moods (Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation, Composer Showcase Series), Fascinatin’ Rhythms (Neil A. Kjos Music Co., 1985), Rag Times Four (Kjos, 1983) and Adventures in Jazz Piano, Books 1 and 2 (Bärenreiter, 1983). He has co-authored all editions of Keyboard Musicianship, Books 1 and 2 (Stipes Publishing Co.), from 1979 through 2020. Recordings consist of Hot Ivories, Nimble-Fingered Gentleman, Zebra Stripes, Brass Knuckles, Upstate Standards with trombonist Mark Kellogg, and Tribute.
Awards include the Frances Clark Center Lifetime Achievement Award (2021), Frances Clark Center Inaugural Outstanding Service Recognition Award (2019), SUNY Fredonia Outstanding Achievement Award (2010), and the University of Illinois Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (1988 and 1984). Caramia continues his devotion to teaching 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.
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.
She performs regularly with pianist William Chapman Nyaho as the Nyaho/Garcia Piano Duo, specializing in both the standard repertoire and newly composed works for piano duo and duet. They released their first CD of Aaron Copland’s two-piano works on Centaur Records (1998) to critical acclaim. Reviews called this recording “the standard against which any future performances of these dances will be measured.” The Duo’s newest release Five by Four (2022) on MSR Classics includes contemporary music for piano duo including four world premiere recordings.
She is the co-developer of eNovativePiano: Multimedia Resources for Developing Musicianship Skills, a sequenced multimedia curriculum for piano instruction that includes instructional videos, video animations, original compositions, and pedagogical editions of standard piano works. In 2021, eNovativePiano was awarded the MTNA-Frances Clark Award for Keyboard Pedagogy.
Dr. Garcia has served in leadership roles for Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), National Group Piano/Piano Pedagogy Forum (GP3), Louisiana Music Teachers Association (LMTA), and the Lafayette Area Music Teachers Association (LAMTA). Currently she serves as co-chair of the MTNA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) conference track for their national conferences in 2022 and 2023.
She has been the recipient of many honors including the University of Louisiana Distinguished Professor Award (2001), Music Teachers National Association Foundation Fellow (2012), Louisiana Music Teachers Association Outstanding Teacher (2013), and the University of Louisiana College of the Arts “Research Excellence Award” (2015).