I was born into a musical family. My father was Associate Concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and my mother a college voice major. At age 3 my dad taught me to find “D” on the keyboard (between the 2 black notes), along with “FACE” and “Every Good Boy Does Fine.” My first teacher, from age 6 until high school graduation, was the late Lazelle Light of Dallas . After high school I took no lessons through college, law school and beyond, but continued playing the piano for my own enjoyment.

Beginning in the 1970's I discovered musical theater, and was music director for several Dallas area local productions. In 2000 I participated in the second Cliburn Amateur Competition, preparing without a teacher. Realizing that further improvement required a teacher, I studied with Dr. Tamás Ungár from 2000 until I moved to Syracuse , NY in 2004 to accept an appointment as a United States Administrative Law Judge. Under Dr. Ungár's tutelage, I participated in the 2002 Cliburn Amateur Competition, as well as several Piano Texas (formerly the TCU-Cliburn Institute) sessions, and had the thrill of concerto performance with the Fort Worth Symphony.

I now study piano with Dr. Fred Karpoff of Syracuse University , who happens to be a former TCU-Cliburn Institute participant as a long-ago young artist. I have been married to Martha for 26 years, and we have one son, David, who plays the drums.

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Master Class Repertoire:
Ravel: Sonatine


Concerto Repertoire:
Mozart: Piano Concerto No.24 in C minor, KV 491
          II. Larghetto

Gerald Finkel is a professor of pathology at the University of Washington Medical School, now semi-retired. Having taken his M.D. degree at Harvard Medical School in 1959, he practiced mostly in an academic setting until 1999 when he relocated to Seattle.

His musical training started with private piano lessons in Newark , N.J., his home town. During that time, he met Seymour Bernstein, now an internationally known and respected pianist and pedagogue, with whom he became close friends. Although, he had, at various times, other teachers, Seymour Bernstein remained his mentor all these years.

During the many years of medical practice, the piano was not a priority, and only became one again after retirement. With much encouragement from friends and family, he is trying to restore his proficiency, although youthful vigor eludes him still. In the last few years, he has twice competed in the Van Cliburn Competition for Amateur Pianists and in the Concours des Amateurs in Paris as well a having attended the Piano Texas mini-institute last year.

Master Class Repertoire:
Chopin: Polonaise-Fantasie in A-flat major, Op.61


Concerto Repertoire:
Rachmaninov: Concerto No.1 in F-sharp minor, Op.1
          I. Vivace

Robert Finley was born in Hull, UK, and started to play the piano at the age of seven. He won a scholarship to study piano and musicianship at Trinity College of Music in London at the age of ten. In 1968 he studied electronic engineering at the University of Sussex , and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree. In 1976 he was awarded the ARCM diploma of the Royal College of Music with honors.

He studied in the UK with Norma Fisher (protege of Gina Bachauer), Albert Ferber (student of Rachmaninoff) and in the masterclasses of Louis Kentner, Vlado Perlmuter, Bernard Roberts, David Wilde and Jorge Bolet, and in the USA with Michael Lewin, Gabriel Chodos and Victor Rosenbaum.

He has given recitals in the UK, USA, France, Germany, Israel and Argentina, playing on the radio and television. He also played the Mozart K414, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Shostakovich Op 102, Rachmaninoff Nos. 1 and 3 piano concertos with orchestras in the UK .

He won prizes in international piano competitions including 2nd prize in the 2004 WIPAC competition in Washington DC . He is the President and Founder of the Boston Piano Amateurs Association, a non-profit organization that organizes a bi-annual international piano competition for outstanding amateurs. An expert in MIDI and electronic music synthesis, he has recorded three CDs for the QRS Pianomation player piano system.

Future concerts include a recital in Paris, France on July 4th, and some concerts in Boston later this year.

In 2006 he retired from General Dynamics (formerly GTE) where he had worked as an electronics engineer since emigrating to the USA in 1980.

C. Rex Gardner, a native Oklahoman, started his piano training at age 13 and continued through his freshman year at the University of Oklahoma before changing his major studies to Business Administration. After earning a Master's degree in Accounting, he worked in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he was a three year piano student of Ralph Berkowitz, former Dean of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood and piano accompanist for renowned cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. While studying with Mr. Berkowitz, Rex participated in the June Music Festivals and attended the Berkshire Music Camp where he had a master class with the late Béla Nagy.

Mr. Gardner's love of piano study was interrupted for 35 years due to career transfers to many states until his retirement in 1997 in Nashville, Tennessee, where he currently resides. He has studied with Dr. Jerome Reed, Chairman, Piano Department of Lipscomb University, and recently has been coached by Yakov Kasman, Artist in Residence at the University of Alabama in Birmingham and silver medalist winner of the 10 th Van Cliburn Piano Competition. Rex has attended the Piano Texas International Academy and Festival as a performer or auditor for the past seven years.

Mr. Gardner actively participates in and has performed many times for the Steinway Society of Nashville. His other interests and hobbies include world travel, reading and studying the great composers, politics, beagles, and genealogy. Rex's current project is overseeing a complete restoration of an 1883 Steinway Patent Grand which had not been moved since 1939, the year of Rex's birth. He was fortunate to be in Russia in 1998 and attended the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition and has made a trip (sponsored by Adam Wobrowski, Piano Professor at the Paris Conservatory) which followed the exact route Chopin and George Sand took from Paris to Majorca in 1837. Rex is married and has two children and one 17 year old granddaughter, and another grand child on the way.

When not working my full-time position as an IT Project & Technical Services Manager, I also spend my time presenting pet ("Pupperware") parties. My passion for music currently includes playing the piano and flute. After a 20 year hiatus in my musical studies, I came back to actively studying again in 2002 when I took up the flute. That, in turn, got me back into formally studying piano again. Other activities I enjoy include: hiking, biking, travel, roller coaster riding (for which I've travelled as far as Japan), dancing and yoga.

Master Class Repertoire:
Liszt: "Funérailles" from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses


Concerto Repertoire:
Saint-Saëns: Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.22
          I. Andante sostenuto

Matthew Hand, a native of South Florida, has spent more than half his life in the Middle East, where he oversees relief work and peace initiatives. He is currently organizing dialogue between Muslims, Eastern Christians and Westerners and is responsible for ongoing development programs in the border areas of Iraq, Turkey and Iran and in major municipalities.

In his youth, Matthew was an avid student of the piano, but never pursued this interest professionally. "I'm an amateur player, and always have been." He enjoys chamber music, concerts, scuba diving and cigars. Matthew and his wife Joanne have two children.

Martha Hickner is a family physician and mother of five from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prior to attending medical school, she majored in music at Carleton College under the tutelage of Ann Mayer. She also studied piano performance for a year at the University of Minnesota, Duluth with her aunt Patricia Laliberte – who has been a lifelong source of musical and personal inspiration.

Martha resumed her studies in early1998 at the MacPhail Center for the Arts in Minneapolis. Inspired by the experience at the TCU Piano Institute, in 2003 she began more intensive studies with Kenneth Huber, former student of Leon Fleisher and Frank Mannheimer. Huber is currently a professor of music at Martha's alma mater.

Martha has accompanied her 4 daughters (clarinet, 2 violins, and cello) in various community and high school performances. She has also performed with her daughter's cello choir in church performances. Her solo experiences have been in recitals at MacPhail and at the piano institute at Texas Christian University as well as casual performances in homes and church. Martha's first competition experience was at the 1 st International Piano Competition for Amateurs in Berlin Germany in September, 2006.

Born and raised in upstate N.Y. , Peggy King received an undergraduate Piano Pedagogy degree from the Lamont School of Music
( Univ. of Denver ) in 1976. Peggy moved to Maui ,Hi. to be with her college sweetheart and now husband of 31 years Bill King. Peggy has attended Piano Texas 7 times in the amateur's program as a performing participant and over a 3 year period was able to present a DVD to all her friends and family of a complete Mozart Piano Concerto with String Quartet as part of the Chamber Music programs that Piano Texas offered to the Amateurs.

Currently, Peggy is a group fitness instructor and personal trainer at Valley Isle Fitness Center and lives in upcountry Maui with her husband, 3 dogs and a cat. When Peggy isn't practicing her piano, she enjoys ocean and wind sports and walking her dogs up the hills where she lives.

Peggy would like to thank her teachers for helping her prepare for Piano Texas: Igor Resnianski, Ellen Masaki and Ruth Murata.

LaWayne Leno grew up on a farm near Bismarck, North Dakota. His first musical experience was at the age of 12 when he taught himself to play an electric organ his family had acquired. Equipped with the latest technology – ColorGlow – (the keyboard lit-up) this system boasted no need to learn Bass Clef: C chord was red, G was green, and F, yellow. “My rendition of Moon River became a big hit.” At the age of 16 his family purchased a piano and a few months later he began his first piano lessons with Belle Mehus in Bismarck. A musical life-changing opportunity occurred when, at the age of 20, LaWayne had an opportunity to study for one winter in New York City with Oxana Yablonskaya, now a valued member of the Juilliard faculty.

LaWayne is a 1984 graduate of Mary College where he received a degree in Accounting. He subsequently spent about 20 years self-employed as a software and accounting consultant and traveled extensively throughout the entire US. About 5 years ago he reduced his work schedule and began teaching private piano lessons. “I am enjoying this second career, and I especially appreciate having time to practice.”

LaWayne currently lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with his partner, Reid Smith (who really does know how to play the piano) and his two pet love birds, Socrates and Pericles, both of whom are accomplished singers.

Last summer LaWayne & Reid performed several of Schubert's four-hand piano pieces including the F minor Fantasy at the Yves Nat International Music Festival in Serignan, France. They were also featured on the Schubert Club courtroom concert series in 2007.

Larry Long's love for the piano started as a child in Shreveport , Louisiana when he took lessons from Anna Bell Worden, a Juilliard graduate. He studied with Alfred Teltschik in Houston in the late 1990's and for the last three years with Ekaterina Loudermilk, a Master's graduate of Rice University where she studied with Dr. Robert Roux. In April, 2008 the Longs moved to Fort Worth and Larry is studying with Dr. Tamás Ungár.

Larry has been married for 37 years to Carol and they have two adult children, Lloyd and Claire. He retired in 2002 from ExxonMobil Corporation after 30 years in various financial positions. He holds a BA in Economics and an MBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Besides piano music, the Longs are passionate about Living Water International (LWI), a Christian charity that drills water wells in developing countries. The mission of LWI is to provide a “cup of clean water in Jesus name” and the Longs have participated in donating and drilling wells in Central America and Africa .

Canadian pianist, Thomas Maurice, is currently a full-time Network Engineer/Project Coordinator for a non-profit company in Baltimore, Maryland, where he resides. He holds multiple certifications from Microsoft, Novell and Cisco, as well both Bachelor and Masters Degrees in piano performance. Mr. Maurice has won several Amateur piano competitions, and was a semi-finalist in the 2007 Cliburn competition for Outstanding Amateur Pianists, where he was recognized with a Jury Discretionary Award.

Mr. Maurice's hobbies include renovation on his historic home, assisting his partner of 20 years in the creation and maintenance of websites, and caring for their many feline friends that they have rescued and adopted.

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OLSEN
Richard



Retired Corporate Executive

San Francisco, California

San Franciscan Dick Olsen, 69, began piano study at age three. As a youth, he studied with former San Francisco Conservatory faculty member Herbert Jaffe, gave solo recitals, competed in West Coast competitions and performed as soloist with the California Youth Symphony. When he entered Stanford University , he discontinued piano study and performance.

Forty years later, following his retirement as Vice President of Transamerica Corporation,, Dick resumed piano study with Professor William Corbett-Jones, Piano Department Chair at San Francisco State University . He has since performed in : the “Grands Amateurs de Piano” in Paris; in two of the Van Cliburn Foundation's “International Piano Competitions for Outstanding Amateurs;” in the “Rocky Mountain Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs” where he was a Semi-Finalist, and in the “Pinault Music Society International Competition,” where he was a Finalist in 2001 and won Second Prize in 2003. In both years, he was the highest-ranked “Senior (age 60 and over) competitor, which category included professionals as well as amateurs. Most recently, he performed in the 1 st International Piano Amateur Competition in Berlin and will again be performing in that competition this September.

Dick is a Trustee, Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee for the University of California at Berkeley 's Art Museum and Film Archive. He is also a Trustee of and will shortly become Chairman of U.C. Berkeley's Young Musicians Program. He is a Trustee and Audit Committee Chair for the Eye Research Foundation at the University of California at. San Francisco's Medical School. Dick has previously served as a Trustee for: the San Francisco Ballet; the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; San Francisco Performances; and the Stanford University Alumni Association.

Dick is married (Candace). His daughter, Jennifer is Senior Director of Marketing for The GAP On-line. His son, Jeffrey, runs the Adult Swim website for Turner Television's Cartoon Network.

OSAWA
Reiko

Homemaker

Sunnyvale, California

Reiko Osawa received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in the Composition as a student of Hideaki Suzuki from the Osaka College of Music at Osaka Japan.

Reiko has been composing contemporary music of various instrumental and vocal after graduate school. She also has teaching career of music theory and piano more than 10 years in Japan .

Mrs. Osawa has moved to San Jose , CA since 2001 because of husband's relocation. She is taking piano performance class in De Anza college. She was participant of PianoTexas International Academy & Festival 2006, 2007 and competitor of 5th International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs. Also she was a finalist of Rocky Mountain Amateur Competition at 2007.

PANICO
Robert

Radiologist

O'Fallon, Illinois

PEAVY
Janet

Marketing Consultant

Dallas, Texas

PEIXOTO
José Mauro

Stock Portfolio Manager

Sao Paulo, Brazil

José Mauro Silveira Peixoto, Brazilian, was born on september, 7, 1943.  He lives now in São Paulo , State of São Paulo, Brasil.  José Mauro is a mechanical engineer, graduated in 1966 by Maua Institute of Technology.  He completed a post graduated course in Business Administration at Getulio Vargas Foundation in 1970.  José worked as a judicial expert an mechanical engineer until 1970.  Following his studies in Business Administration he has worked in the financial market to the present.  Today he is the manager of an investment fund in the Brazilian stock market.

José Mauro is son of the pianist Odette de Faria and the journalist Silveira Pixoto and started to study piano with his mother when he was three years old.  When he was five he made a studio recording.  At nine he gave a recital for "Pro Arte" the most famoust artistic society at the time in São Paulo .  At eleven appeared twice on television.  His mother did not favor his adopting music as a carreer and encourages him to study engineering, because of his facility for mathematics.

At the age of twelve he abandoned the piano for twenty eight years, and only played again when a friend on the ocasion of his fortieth birthday asked José Mauro to play, as a birthday gift, the Chopin's Polonaise (Op.53), which he loved and remembered hearing him play as a child.  The success encourages José to return to the piano.  He looked for a teacher, and found Olga Normanha in Campinas, a friend of his mother's.  For eight years he had weekly classes.  At the same time, he refused invitations to work as director of two large financial institutions ins Brazil , because he needed four hours daily to practise the piano.

In 1988 he gaved two recitals, in the following years he performed in public about once a year and in 1994 he played the Rachmaninoff's Concerto No.2 with the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra under Eleazar de Carvalho.  After this concert, and for two years Jose had classes with Beatriz Balzi, from the class of Joseph Kliass. In 1997 he recorded a CD with works of Bach/Almeida Prado, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Schumann, Chopin, Debussy and Rachmaninoff.  In January, 1999 he played in Paris in the preliminary round of the International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs organized by Gerard Bekerman.  In June, 1999, Jose played in Ft Worth in the preliminary round or the First International Piano Competition for Amateurs.  When returned to Brasil, Jose performed five times at English Culture of Sao Paulo, once at Musical Conservatory of Osasco, once in Curitiba , most of all playing a Chopin's Recital.  In the following years José participated in many Amateurs Competitions, twice in Paris, three times Fort Worth, twice in Colorado, three times in Washington, twice in Boston, once in Salt Lake City and once in Berlin.

At the end of 2007 José appeared again twice in Brazilian Television.

PHILLIPS
Vincent

Anesthesiologist

Englewood, Ohio

I have been working as an anesthesiologist in Dayton , Ohio for the past 13 years where I have been developing our regional anesthesia program for post operative pain control.  It's been exciting and rewarding to see the increased patient satisfaction as a result of this program.  I addition, I just recently gave a recital a Central State University in Xenia, Ohio, and am on the board of directors for the Dayton Philarmonic Orchestra.     

When I'm not practicing, I like to swim and spend time with my granddaughter, Jordyn, who just turned six. 

PRONSKE
Gerrit

Attorney

Dallas, Texas

Gerrit Pronske graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in history in 1980.  He graduated from Texas Tech School of Law in 1983, and currently practices law as a business bankruptcy lawyer with his own law firm in Dallas , Texas .  Mr. Pronske is the author of Pronske's Texas Bankruptcy, Annotated (2008), a legal practice manual published by Texas Lawyer Press, currently in its 8th Edition. 

Mr. Pronske started playing the piano at the age of 9 and, after stopping for a couple of years to play baseball, started up again in high school.  He studied piano for a number of years during college and law school with William Westney, the Artist-in-Residence at Texas Tech University , and has studied for the past several years with Krassimira Jordan, the Artist-in-Residence at Baylor University .  He also enjoys painting, grilling, exercising and spending time with his wife and family.

ROSSMAN
Linda

Retired Teacher

Saint Paul, Minnesota

A native New Yorker, Linda has lived in Minnesota for the last 45 years, and presently lives in Saint Paul . She is a graduate of the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan , where she majored in voice, and Antioch College in Yellow Springs , Ohio , where she majored in Biology and Secondary Education. Linda received a master's degree in Secondary Education, with three extra licenses to teach Special Education.

She has taught secondary Special Education for 25 years in the Saint Paul schools. Since her retirement in 2003, Linda has worked part time teaching adults with special needs at the Ronald B. Hubbs Center and other high schools in Saint Paul . Piano lessons began at age six, with long breaks for parenthood and teaching. She is continuing to study piano with Guna Skujina at the newly rebuilt MacPhail Center for the Arts in Minneapolis.

Linda is currently involved in two music groups, participating in both solo and chamber music, and has arranged a piano piece for flute, bass and piano, which was performed in an annual Musicale in May of 2006. Her first piano trio was performed at the same musicale in May of 2007, and a second piano trio will be performed at the same venue this coming May. Her hobbies include hiking, walking, piano, composition, dancing, singing, socializing, films, theater, reading, and participating in political discussions, especially during a good meal.

WALKER
Kelly

Software Developer

Concord, California

Kelly Walker began his musical studies by playing saxophone in high school band, then later both drums and orchestral percussion. He began studying the piano after moving to the Bay Area in 1995, first with Melissa Smith for several years and since then in Eliane Lust's master class studio. He has also begun studying the Taubman Approach with Marc Steiner. Kelly has studied works both within the traditional repertoire, as well as by contemporary composers such as George Crumb and John Corigliano.

Kelly works as a software developer for Kaiser Permanente, and lives in Concord with his wife Yvonne and their two cats Sylvester and Roxanne. In addition to studying music, Kelly also enjoys skiing and hiking.

ZARRY
Joan

Retired Business Woman

Toronto, Canada

Joan began her love affair with the piano at age 5 and completed a music degree in Performance at the University of Toronto . From an early  age, she was also a child actor in radio and stage and studied with Lorne Green before he left Canada for Bonanza. For a few years after graduating , Joan taught piano at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto and performed frequently. She then left music for a career in property development and design.  In addition she owned and operated a pub-restaurant in downtown Toronto and a live theater country western hall in the country. 

Five years ago, after the death of her husband , Joan began playing the piano again after 35 years.  While rediscovering the piano does not exactly conform to the riding a bike analogy, nevertheless Joans only regret is ever to have stopped playing at all.  She is also the official accompanist, teacher and coach of 6 very active and talented violinist grandchildren.  Recently she has begun performing in public again and also is a member of the Master Class Players, a group of 5 pianists who give concerts for charities and fundraising events. 

ZUNIGA
Marco

Electrical Engineer

Palo Alto, California

After playing tenor saxophone for 6 years, Marco began playing piano at age 18. He resumed his piano studies in earnest 6 years ago and is an active participant in Eliane Lust's master class studio. Besides enjoying classical piano performance, Marco is an ocassional composer and jazz enthusiast.

Dr. Marco Zuniga is an electrical engineer residing in Palo Alto, CA. He earned his B.S.E.E. from The University of Texas at Austin , and M.S.E.E./Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. He is one of the co-founders of Volterra Semiconductor, where he is currently employed.