Piano

Preparation

The SMI Piano Camp is designed for pre-college students aged 13-18. High school graduates are also welcome. Conditional acceptance of younger students may be requested via email to Dr. Yontov, the camp director. Students should prepare at least one solo piano work for the first day of camp.

Scholarships

Several scholarships are available to help defray the cost of the camp. Please check the “Scholarships” tab on the main Summer Music Institute page to access this information. Additional scholarships are reserved for participants of the 2023 Dubois Piano Competition.

Master Classes

Daily master classes will be presented by BGSU's distinguished piano faculty. An additional special master class will be presented by our guest artist, Christopher Harding.

Piano Duets

Upon arrival, each camper will be assigned a duet partner to study a piece for piano four-hand. Students will receive instruction and rehearse for four days, culminating in a piano duet concert.

Concerts

In addition to the piano duet concert, two joint recitals are scheduled, featuring all participating campers. The solo pieces performed in these concerts will be selected by the piano faculty.

Guest Artist

The SMI Piano Camp is thrilled to have Christopher Harding as guest artist in 2023. Harding, Chair of Piano at University of Michigan, will present a solo recital and a special masterclass to select campers. Our guest artist's biography:

Christopher Harding

Pianist Christopher Harding maintains an international presence as a noted teacher and performer. He has given solo, concerto, and chamber music performances in venues as far flung as the Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the IBK and Recital Halls of the Seoul Art Center, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the National Theater Concert Hall in Taipei, the Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary, and halls and festival appearances in Newfoundland, Israel, Italy, Romania, Russia, and China. His concerto performances have included concerts with the National Symphony and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestras, the San Angelo and Santa Barbara Symphonies, and the Tokyo City Philharmonic, working with such conductors as Andrew Sewell, Eric Zhou, Taijiro Iimori, Gisele Ben-Dor, Fabio Machetti, Randall Craig Fleisher, John DeMain, Ron Spiegelman, Daniel Alcott, and Darryl One, among others.

Mr. Harding’s chamber music and duo collaborations have included internationally renowned artists such as clarinetist Karl Leister, flautist Andras Adorjan, and members of the St. Lawrence and Ying String Quartets, in addition to frequent projects with his distinguished faculty colleagues at the University of Michigan. He has recorded solo and chamber music CDs for the Equilibrium and Brevard Classics labels. He has additionally edited and published critical editions and recordings of works by Claude Debussy (Children's Corner, Suite Bergamasque, the Arabesques and shorter works) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Viennese Sonatinas) for the Schirmer Performance Editions published by Hal Leonard.

Professor Harding has presented master classes and lecture recitals in universities across the United States and Asia, as well as in Israel and Canada. He is a Permanent Guest Professor at the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China, where he holds the privilege of presenting yearly masterclasses; he has additionally served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the both the Sichuan Conservatory (2008) and Seoul National University (2011). While teaching at SNU, he simultaneously held a Special Chair in Piano at Ewha Womans' University. He has taught masterclasses and performed lecture recitals at all the major universities and schools of music in South Korea.

In addition to serving as Chair of Piano and teaching undergraduate and graduate piano performance and chamber music at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, Mr. Harding also serves on the faculty of the Indiana University Summer Piano Academy and is a frequent guest artist and teacher at the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival in Tampa, Florida. He is a founding faculty member of the White Nights International Piano Festival in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Harding was born of American parents in Munich, Germany and raised in Northern Virginia. His collegiate studies were with Menahem Pressler and Nelita True. Prior to college, he worked for 10 years with Milton Kidd at the American University Department of Performing Arts Preparatory Division, where he was trained in the traditions of Tobias Matthay. He has taken 25 first prizes in national and international competitions and in 1999 was awarded the special "Mozart Prize" at the Cleveland International Piano Competition, given for the best performance of a composition by Mozart.