Overview

Welcome to the keyboard area at Colorado State University, where excellence in the pursuit of musical expression, technical mastery, and artistry in performance is our primary goal. As a pianist or an organist, you will be guided in your performance study by a gifted team of artist-teachers, performers, and internationally recognized scholars in the field. Pianists and organists relish the unusual amount of individual attention and focus on keyboard study they receive at Colorado State University in private lessons, weekly master classes, departmental recitals, keyboard literature classes, liturgical music studies, or classes in chamber music, improvisation, and pedagogy. Also, keyboard students enjoy numerous performance opportunities and other musical experiences at Colorado State University. At the heart of every pianist is an intense love of the instrument, its touch, its vast repertoire, and its seemingly inexhaustible capacity for expression.

This is mirrored in the words of the great pianist and composer, Franz Liszt:

"My piano is to me what his vessel is to the seaman, his horse to the Arab, nay, even more, 'til (sic) now it has been myself, my speech, my life. It is the repository of all that stirred my nature in the passionate days of my youth. I confided to it all my desires, my dreams, my joys, and my sorrows. Its strings vibrated to my emotions and its keys obeyed my every caprice."

In the keyboard area, emphasis is placed upon the growth of the individual student, with excellence in applied instruction constantly reinforced by practical experience in the public performance of solo, chamber, and concerto repertoire. Weekly private lessons and performance classes on Steinway grand pianos culminate in solo public recitals in the junior and senior years, and opportunities to appear as soloists with orchestra are provided through the annual Concerto Competition. Experience in accompanying is gained throughout the four years of undergraduate study through class instruction and laboratory experience in the vocal and instrumental studios. Ear training skills and improvisation are honed through piano labs and improvisation classes, and pedagogic techniques are learned and practiced through the supervision of beginning and intermediate pedagogy classes.