Teacher Enrichment

Dianne Davies received a BA in music from Lewis and Clark College with piano emphasis and K-12 music education certification. Since then, she has taught public and private school music and currently focuses on her private piano studio in Beaverton and performing. In 2010 Dianne created and performed her comedy show Dianne Davies Has Fallen Off Her Bench and in 2016, she created, produced, and performed a new show titled Attachments & Detachments–Tragedy to Triumph combining the music of Cascadia Composers, the Northwest Regions chapter of NACUSA (National Association of Composers USA), with dance, live art, and theatre to tell her own transparent story.

In 2016, Dianne also began composing pieces for piano students. Since 2018, her student compositions have been performed each year at PSU in the Cascadia sponsored concert, In Good Hands, that connects living composers with young music students. Most recently, in December 2019 she produced another show with all her own compositions and arrangements for Christmas titled Soli Deo Gloria. Dianne created and performed original piano solo pieces, piano solo arrangements of Chopin Nocturnes fused with traditional carols (Romantic Christmas Suite), as well as a violin & piano duet, violin & cello duet, vocal solos, and choral works. Again, she collaborated with live dancers and multi-media visual artist Collin Murphy. Dianne also chairs the State Composition Celebration. Watch for her monthly column in the OMTA Music News on-line publication and her current performing and composing projects at musiqPOWER.com.

to teach all the levels of the OMTA Syllabus chord progressions and put them into music. The right-hand melodies are given in scale degree numbers and the left hand accompaniment is given in Roman Numerals following each level of syllabus. Students learn to easily transpose the ideas to all keys and understand the concepts.

In demand as a solo and collaborative artist as well as an adjudicator and presenter, Dr. Lark Powers has performed at such venues as Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the 92nd Street Y in New York City and at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Internationally she has been heard in Europe, Mexico, and Canada. In addition to numerous collaborations with ensembles, including the Tacoma Symphony, Fort Collins Symphony, the Washington-Idaho Symphony, and the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, she appears in frequent two-piano concerts as part of the duo she forms with pianist Ricardo de la Torre. Locally she is a frequent performer on the Listen Live at Lunch series at the First Lutheran Church of Tacoma, the Second City Chamber Series, and the faculty artist series at Pacific Lutheran University.

Lark received a DMA in piano performance from the University of Colorado Boulder, and holds three Master’s degrees (in piano, theory pedagogy and in harpsichord) and a graduate performance diploma in piano from the Peabody Institute. Her undergraduate studies occurred at the University of the Pacific, where she earned a BM in piano performance, summa cum laude, after which she attended the Conservatoire National de Région de Paris for three years where she won a premier prix.

A Nationally Certified Teacher of Music and a Washington State Visiting Artist, Lark teaches at Pacific Lutheran University where she instructs applied lessons and accompanying and coordinates the group keyboard program. Dr. Powers has presented on topics including managing performance anxiety, the creativity inherent in the Baroque repertoire, the pedagogy of keyboard harmony, and more. She is a proponent of new music, specializing in the music of Latin American composers, and can be heard on recordings with the Pan Pacific Ensemble on Albany records and the Cherry Creek Flute Duo.

However, many musicians were never taught how to practice, and some of what we think we know about learning can be updated. A few easily incorporated practice strategies can greatly increase progress and make practicing more efficient. This presentation will delve into fascinating research on how the brain learns and how this relates to music and practicing. Offering innovative and practical advice, topics discussed will include organization, spacing, the effectiveness of interleaved (random) repetition, first-time retrieval strategies, performance preparation, and common practice mistakes. With strategies to overcome the challenge of getting started, making improvement that sticks, staying focused, and planning the next session, this presentation will suggest ideas that can make practice rewarding and effective. Strategic practice techniques create transformative changes, which can be seen in overall progress as well as in performing comfort and success.

Deborah Ingram Cleaver holds a Master of Music degree in piano performance from Boston University where she studied with the renowned pianist and pedagogue Leonard Shure. After finishing her degree, she worked closely with Shure as his teaching assistant at New England Conservatory.

Ms. Cleaver has also spent many years studying the performance practice of the Baroque and Classical periods with such luminaries as Sandra Rosenblum, Edward Parmentier, and Elisabeth Wright. Her broad interests have resulted in lectures for universities and music teachers’ organizations, ranging from the expressive aspects of Baroque performance practice to the correlation between Romantic literature and music. Ms. Cleaver teaches at Lewis and Clark College and Reed College as well as in her private studio. She also organizes seminars three times each year for the Portland/Golandsky Institute community and is a past president of OMTA Portland District. She has been a faculty member of the Golandsky Institute since 2005 and teaches at their summer institute at Princeton University every summer. Previous teaching positions have been at Willamette University, St. Andrews College, and the South Shore Conservatory in Boston.

An avid performer, she has appeared with the Fear No Music Ensemble, the DeRosa Chamber Players, Cascadia Composers, Friends of Rain, and the Makrokosmos Project I and II. She has had performances aired on the classical music programs PLAYED IN OREGON and ALL CLASSICAL PORTLAND. In addition, she has given lectures, workshops, and recitals at Portland State University, Eastern Washington University, and for Oregon and Washington music teachers’ associations, and is a frequent adjudicator throughout the Northwest.

in a master class setting while the audience is invited to learn by observing. Please contact Tammy Johnson for more details.

Alexander Tutunov is widely recognized as one of the most outstanding virtuosos of the former Soviet Union. First Prize winner of the Belarusian National Piano Competition and winner of the Russian National Piano Competition, Tutunov’s playing was described by Soviet Culture, Moscow, as “exhilarating and inspired, and which demonstrated a unique talent”.

Dr. Tutunov maintains a busy performing schedule in Europe, China, Mexico, and the United States as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and on radio and television. Dr. Tutunov is also in demand as an adjudicator for piano competitions.

Tutunov graduated magna cum laude from the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory (studies with Anna Artobolevskaya and Lev Naumov) and University of North Texas (piano studies with Joseph Banowetz). Awarded his doctoral diploma with honors in concert performance from the Belarusian State Conservatory, Dr. Tutunov has taught at the Minsk College of Music, the University of North Texas, and Illinois Wesleyan University.

Alexander Tutunov now lives in Ashland, where he is Professor of Piano and Artist in Residence at Southern Oregon University. A successful piano pedagogue, he continues to prepare award-winning students. Dr. Tutunov is Artist in Residence at the University of Alaska Southeast, Artistic director of the SOU International Piano Institute, and was recently named the Director of the Chinese-American International Piano Institute in Chengdu, China.

in a master class setting while the audience is invited to learn by observing. Please contact Terri Horn for more details.

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. He has 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).

that we can perform with ease, grace, and command of ourselves and the instrument. It often feels like a mysterious, alchemical process to arrive there: how do we go from learning and struggling to real mastery? The answer lies in large part in the four senses we use when performing: hearing, sight, touch, and proprioception. All four of these senses must be engaged for stellar performances, but we often do not know how to make the best use of them or how to teach our students to do so.

In this talk, Dr. Lewis will speak about how we must lead first and foremost with our hearing; how our eyes can be powerful allies or can make our practice and performance suffer; how touch and proprioception reinforce an intuitive and resilient connection between the musician and the instrument. He will talk about specific teaching and practice strategies to optimize how we use our senses. Recent neuroscience research on how our brain processes sensory input and turns it into motor action and creative thought will be explorer. Ultimately, this will help us better reach the place where we can feel empowered to perform creatively, boldly, and expressively.