PIANO

Christy Wilson has been an active music educator and performer for over 30 years. Her undergraduate degree is in Music Education with a major in piano from Shorter College, and she holds the Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from Georgia State University. She moved to Salzburg, Austria to attend the Mozarteum Conservatory where she received an Artist Diploma in Piano Performance, equivalent to a doctorate in the United States. She received full scholarships from all three schools, a graduate research assistantship in accompanying at Georgia State, and performed on Honors Recitals at all three schools.

She continued her music education by moving to Boston to attend New England Conservatory, with post-graduate studies to include teachers Leonard Shure and Victor Rosenbaum, and chamber music coaching with Benjamin Zander, Patricia Zander and John Heiss. Other major teachers were Bela Boszormenyi-Nagy and John Perry. She has participated in summer festivals, receiving a full scholarship from Brevard Music Center, Sarasota Music Festival and appearing as orchestral soloist with New England Conservatory and Mozarteum Festival Orchestras.

Christy has extensively accompanied singers and instrumentalists in Boston, Atlanta and Salzburg. She has been on the piano faculties at Brookline Music School and South Shore Conservatory (piano department chair) in Boston. She has been adjudicator for GMTA and GMEA sponsored festivals in Georgia, for National Federation of Music Clubs in Raleigh, NC and is a life-long member of MTNA.

Robin Morace maintains an interest in music from many times and places, and is accordingly comfortable on both modern and historical keyboard instruments. Holding degrees in composition and performance from the State University of New York at Fredonia, where he studied piano with Fr. Seán Duggan, he currently studies modern piano, fortepiano, and harpsichord with Dr. Andrew Willis at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His major research project argues that one of Chopin’s most popular works is a musical manifestation of his widely-noted gift for mimicry, and is in fact a subtle pastiche rather than an entirely original work. Mr. Morace’s musical education has been supplemented by summer classes at the Académie de Musique Tibor Varga (Sion, Switzerland) with Konstantin Scherbakov, at the Prague Conservatoire with Ivo Kahánek and Avedis Kouyoumdjian, at the Académie Orford (Québec, Canada) with Jean Saulnier and André Laplante, and at the Chopin Institute’s summer course in Radziejowice, Poland, where he worked with Alexei Lubimov and Tobias Koch on historical pianos.

Stephanie Schmidt has a BM degree with a major in piano performance and piano pedagogy from the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, a MM in piano and organ with piano pedagogy from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and is currently completing the DMA in Piano Performance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has had extensive experience as a piano instructor, accompanist and performer both in group and private arenas including UNCG Music camps, Festival Theater Creativity Summer Camps in WI, the Goshen College Community Music School in IN and the Defrain Music Studio in NE. Stephanie has been an adjudicator in competitions and Piano Festivals for NFMC , NCTMA and others. She has been a presenter and performer in the NCMTA and has recordings and publications available on media. Stephanie is sought out as a performer throughout the Triangle and other areas as a soloist, as a member of chamber music ensembles, and as an accompanist. She continues to participate in workshops, presentations and performances in many states including VA, NY, SD, and IL. Stephanie has been a popular and vibrant musician and piano instructor at CSM since 2014.

Mr. Herrmann began his training with Maria Antos who was professor of piano at New Rochelle College in NY. Of interest: Mrs. Antos, who came from Hungary, was taught by a student of Franz Liszt, who was a student of Carl Czerny who was a student of Beethoven!! Beethoven studied with Haydn, so Mr. Herrmann and all of his many students from over the years are musically descended from Haydn and Beethoven! He enjoys telling his students of their musical great, great, great, grandfathers!! Last summer he traveled to Eisenstadt, Austria to see first- hand the homes of Haydn and Liszt, the Esterhazy Palace where Haydn’s “Creation” was first performed, listened to masterclasses on Mozart, Beethoven. Haydn and classical-style music, as well as play the organ at Bergkirche; Haydn’s church (and the same organ!) 

Following high school graduation, Mr. Herrmann attended the Mannes College of Music in NYC and then transferred to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY where his BM and MM were earned in Organ Performance and Literature and piano .Several post-graduate classes, masterclasses and seminars add to his education and continuing education.