Presenting District: Blue Mountain
Contact: Jan Miller
Presenter: Dr. Michelle Huang, NCTM[expand title=”Read Presenter Bio” swaptitle=” “]A native of Taiwan, pianist Michelle Huang has performed and taught extensively throughout the U.S. as well as abroad in the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, and Taiwan. Described as a pianist with much sensibility and nuance, Michelle Huang is equally at home as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. She has played numerous solo recitals, gave workshops and masterclasses, and collaborated frequently with vocalists and instrumentalists in the Mary L’Engle Ensemble, the River City Trio, the chamber group-in-residence at Friday Musicale in Jacksonville, Florida, and the Jacksonville Symphony and Richmond Symphony musicians.

In 2017, she received a grant to commission ten paintings by two graduates of Virginia Commonwealth University art students. These paintings were presented alongside the complete performance of Mussorgsky’s piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition during her concert tour in 2018-19. Deeply committed to community outreach, she launched a concert series during her residency at Edward Waters College, in which high caliber artists performed concerts as well as conducted master classes, workshops, and lectures for the continuing enrichment and exposure of classical music to both the school and the community. She initiated the Mentoring Program as part of the Richmond Music Teachers Association, in which young music teachers can be paired with experienced teachers to help them with aspects of teaching. She is the co-founder of the Online Young Pianist Summer Symposium, which launched in May 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. The Symposium was conducted virtually for pre-college and college students as well as teachers, in which guest speakers were invited to present topics such as the art of practicing, the art of memorization, and Alexander Technique, as well as a masterclass. The Symposium continued to flourish in April 2022, and is expected to have more sessions in 2023.

Michelle Huang holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Tennessee, and Doctor of Music in Piano Performance from Florida State University. Her principal teachers include Barbara Rowan, David Northington, and Read Gainsford. Dr. Huang has held teaching positions at Walter State Community College and Lincoln Memorial University. In 2011 – 2014, she served as the Assistant Professor of Piano at Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida. Most recently, she was on the piano faculty at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. In the summer, she served on the faculty of East/West International Piano Festival in Seoul, Korea.

In addition to teaching in the collegiate setting, Dr. Huang also maintains a private studio, where she works with talented pre-college students both in her Seattle studio and online. She has served as President and first Vice President of Programming for the Richmond Music Teachers Association. She is currently an active member of the Seattle Music Teachers Association and Eastside Music Teachers Association. Highly demanded as a frequent presenter and adjudicator, she is a Visiting Artist for the Washington State Music Teachers Association. Many of her students have won top awards and successfully pursued studies and careers in music.[/expand]

Program Description: We all know[expand title=”Read More” swaptitle=”]it is important to play what is on the page, but it is also essential to look beyond the written notes and rhythms to seek deeper meaning. In this workshop, we will become more creative as performers by discovering ways to shape phrases, investigating possibilities of varying the repetitions through an assortment of articulations, dynamics, and rubato, interpreting sections and phrases by attaching personalities, images, and colors to make music come alive, and understanding the diverse musical styles and languages to create different tools to play what’s not on the page.[/expand]