Presenting District: Rogue Valley
Presenter: Dr. Stephen Lewis

Program Description: This talk is an in-depth look at the wrist motions involved in piano playing (lateral, up-down, elliptical, rotational, drawer, and stationary) and how they help various techniques and textures we often teach or play. Dr. Lewis will explore how and why these motions are so crucial to piano playing, and provide knowledge and flexibility to the teachers present in how to make your own determinations regarding teaching using the wrists.

Presenter Bio: Dr. Stephen Lewis, PhD, DMA, is a Portland-based composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher whose compositions inhabit the terrain between sound as physical sensation and sound as signifier of culture. Stephen’s opera, Noon at Dusk, was hailed as “delectable,” with a “constantly shifting sonic world [that] proved fascinating and effective.” Recent and upcoming performance engagements include concerts with the Oregon Symphony, the Agnieszka Laska Dancers, the Astoria Music Festival, and Fear No Music’s Young Composers Project as well as a live broadcast on All-Classical Radio. Stephen has also performed throughout the United States and in Italy. Stephen holds a PhD in composition and a DMA in piano from UC-San Diego, and a BMus from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Stephen teaches piano, composition, music theory, and conducting privately at his home and from St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, where he serves as music director and organist. Stephen enjoys baking bread, reading, wine tasting, and hiking with his wife. See more at his websites: www.stephenlewiscomposer.com (artistic) and www.chopinois.com (teaching).