Faculty - Piano - Washington Conservatory of Music

MICHAEL ADCOCK
Piano, Music Theory

D.M.A., M.M., Artist Diploma, the Peabody Institute of Music; B.M., Oberlin Conservatory.

Studies with Leon Fleisher, Ellen Mack, Julian Martin, Joseph Schwartz; adjunct faculty, the Peabody Institute; faculty, Musicorda Summer Festival; associate faculty, Sarasota Music Festival. Winner, Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize, first prize, Kosciuszko Chopin Competition, Washington International Piano Competition prize winner, finalist, Concert Artists Guild Competition; soloist with Baltimore and Richmond Symphonies, recitals at Carnegie Recital Hall, La Gesse Festival, France, Phillips Collection, Embassy Series; chamber music at Kennedy Center, Corcoran Gallery. Performances with Denyce Graves, St. Petersburg String Quartet, Ani Kavafian, Jamie Buswell.

AUDREY ANDRIST
Piano

D.M.A., M.M., Juilliard School; B.M. University of Regina (Saskatchewan, Canada); studies with Herbert Stessin, William Moore.

First prize winner, Mozart International Competition, San Antonio International Competition, Eckhardt-Gramatté, and Juilliard Concerto Competitions; performances throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as in Europe, China, and Japan, including Alice Tully Hall in New York, Place des Arts in Montreal, Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, and in D.C., including the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Museums; member Stern/Andrist Duo, Strata trio, Verge Ensemble; over a dozen recordings. Faculty, University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

MARIBETH GOWEN
Piano

M.M., University of Alabama; B.M. and B.M.E., Emporia State University; post graduate study in chamber music and accompanying with Menahem Pressler and Guarneri Quartet members, solo piano with Nelita True.

First prize, National Winner MTNA Collegiate Artist Piano Competition; First Prize Baltimore Chamber Music Award. Solo appearances with Alabama Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Chattanooga Symphony, Lake Placid Chamber Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Tucson Symphony and the University of Maryland Orchestra. Summer chamber music festivals include Picolo Spoleto Festival, Charleston, Lake Placid Summer Chamber Festival, International Bellapais Music Festival in North Cyprus and the Kredi Arts Festival at Topkapi Palace, Istanbul; other performances include the Kennedy Center Concert Hall and Terrace Theater, the Barns at Wolf Trap, Constitution Hall, Phillips Collection, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Museums, the Cosmos Club, the German, Austrian, Australian, French, Finnish, and Turkish embassies, Baltimore Museum of Art, the Chautauqua Institute,Chicago Symphony Hall, Weill Hall at Carnegie Recital Hall, appearances in Ismir, Istanbul and Yucatan, live radio recital in Rotterdam, Holland, soloist on public television’s “Debut” series. In addition to numerous chamber music collaborations, Ms. Gowen has appeared in duo piano performances with Bradford Gowen.

ERIC HARPER
Jazz Piano

B.M., Oberlin College

Performances across the United States, Europe, and Asia and a wide range of Metro DC area venues on piano and acoustic bass with jazz artists including Charlie Byrd, Ethan Iverson, Scott Hamilton, Bob Wilber, John Hicks, and Chuck Redd. Former faculty at schools including Gettysburg College. Educator at the Jazz Workshop.

DIONNE LAUFMAN
Piano

B.A., Sarah Lawrence; further studies at Peabody Conservatory; pupil of Leon Fleisher (1966-73), Konrad Wolff and Frank Glazer. Chamber music studies with members of the Fine Arts Quartet, the New York Woodwind Quintet and pianist Frank Glazer.

Winner, 1975 Concert Artists Guild Competition. Performed throughout U.S., Europe, Canada. East Coast concert venues have included Carnegie Recital Hall, Kennedy Center, Phillips Collection, Wolf Trap, Dumbarton Oaks Concert Series, Corcoran Gallery, 13 embassies (pianist in first American chamber group ever to perform in the Russian Embassy and Russian Ambassador’s Residence, 1992). Former pianist and co-director of Summer Serenades Chamber Music Festival, Strathmore Hall. Repertory member of the Washington Music Ensemble since 1987; participating member of Embassy Series since 1995; member of the National Chamber Ensemble since its inaugural season in 2007. Radio and TV broadcasts in U.S. and over Voice of America. Co-founder, Washington Conservatory, with Liova Kaplan, Miron Yampolsky and Diana Young.

JAEWON LEE
Piano, Piano Department Chair

Artist Diploma, Cleveland Institute of Music; Professional Studies, New England Conservatory; Advanced Studies with Sergei Babayan; M.A. and B.A. (piano performance), Seoul National University.

Top Teacher Award for outstanding instruction and leadership from Steinway & Sons; Students won local and international competitions and performed at Carnegie Hall. Chair of Washington Music Teachers Association ConcertoFest; Former Faculty member, Cleveland Music School Settlement; Director/founder of CMSS Piano Camp; Prize winner, William Kurzban Award from Cleveland Institute. Winner of Seoul National University Concerto competition. Concerto performances with Cleveland Philharmonic, Lakeside Symphony, Suburban Symphony Orchestras; Chamber recitals with Cleveland Orchestra members. Solo recitals at Fortnightly Musical Club of Cleveland Concert series, Korean American Association of Greater Cleveland.

YEJIN LEE
Piano

B.M., Oberlin Conservatory; M.M. and D.M.A, the Peabody Institute of Music.

Ms. Lee’s achievements include First Prize in the MTNA piano competition, and prizewinner at the Dallas International Piano Competition in Dallas, Texas, and the Wideman International Piano Competition in Shreveport, Louisiana. She has performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, throughout the U.S. and Europe, and as a soloist with the Northwest Florida Symphony and Korean Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Lee has participated in the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria, the Gijón International Piano Festival in Gijón, Spain, and the Orford Music Festival in Montreal, Canada, among others.

HASKELL SMALL
Piano, Music Theory, Composition

B.F.A. Carnegie-Mellon University; Studies at San Francisco Conservatory. Piano studies with Leon Fleisher, William Masselos, Harry Franklin and Jeanne Behrend; composition studies with Roland Leich and Vincent Persichetti.

Award winner, Johann Sebastian Bach International Competition. Featured in PBS special, “A Celebration of the Piano.” Recorded numerous CDs. Concerts in London, Paris, Berlin, Italy, Vienna, South America, Japan, China, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Spoleto Festival. Commissions by Phillips Collection, including Renoir’s Feast celebrating 2006 return of Renoir’s painting, Luncheon of the Boating Party. Other commissions from Washington Ballet, Three Rivers Piano Competition, Georgetown Symphony, Paul Hill Chorale. Winner, Marin Ballet Dance Score Competition. Composer-in-Residence, Mt. Vernon Orchestra, 2002-03.

ARDITA STATOVCI
Piano

Magistra of Arts with highest distinction, Mozarteum University, Salzburg, Austria; Studies with Menahem Pressler at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN; Postgraduate studies, Imola Academy, Italy.

Performed throughout USA, and Austria, France, England, Kosovo, Sweden, Macedonia, Italy, Croatia, Switzerland, Bosnia, India, Spain, Germany, China, Slovenia, Albania, Hungary, Indiana, and Turkey, Japan. Soloist with orchestras including Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Mozart Orchestra (Bologna), Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, Haydn Orchester (Bolzano), Wiener Sinfonietta, Kosova Philharmony, Albanian Radio Television Orchestra, and many solo recitals and chamber music performances. Awards include Society for Music Theatre in Vienna, by Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts, and Culture, Piano Academy, Birmingham, England, Fohn Foundation, Vienna, Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now, Salzburg, “Bösendorfer Prize,” Mozarteum University, International Competitions in Rotarac, Spain and Ibla, Italy. Piano faculty, European Summer Academy, Kosovo, Master classes given at University of Prishtina, Kosovo, University of Tirana, Albania, Merseburg Germany High School, and in Mumbai, New Delhi and Shanghai. Piano competition judge in Kosovo, Albania, Austria. Students have won international awards and been accepted into esteemed institutions. Fluent in English, German and Albanian.

JEFFERY WATSON
Piano, Music Theory, Composition, Vocal Coaching

D.M.A., University of Maryland; M.M., Eastman School of Music; B.M., DePauw University.

Soloist, the Honduran National Symphony, the Pan American Symphony, the Rosario (Argentina) Chamber Orchestra, The Alexandria Symphony and the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra with the Kirov Ballet. Pianist with internationally-acclaimed tango quintet, QuinTango, including performances with the Wichita Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica Sinaloa de las Artes (Mexico), at Lincoln Center, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the U.S. Ambassador’s Residence in Buenos Aires, the Amalfi Coast Festival, and the International Tango Festival in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. In 2009, performed with soprano Susan Bender in Croatia for the International Conference of the College Music Society and was guest artist at the Fairbanks (Alaska) summer music festival. In March 2011, soloist and clinician at 3rd International Piano Festival in Lima, Peru. Toured Uruguay and Argentina with QuinTango, conducted Ravel’s opera L’Enfant et les Sortilèges at University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, and performed with the WCM piano faculty at TEDMED conference that was simulcast to 80 countries around the world. Performances in Dutch Harbor, Alaska under auspices of the Aleutian Arts Council. Former faculty, George Washington University.

CHENGCHENG YAO
Piano

M.M.A., Yale School of Music; M.M., The Juilliard School; B.M. China Conservatory; (D.M.A 2023 anticipated), The Peabody Institute.

Studies with Jerome Lowenthal, Matti Raekallio, Peter Frankl, Hung-Kuan Chen, Leon Fleisher, Yong Hi Moon. Solo appearances in New York City, Hamburg, Berlin, Beijing, Salzburg, Vienna, and Toronto. Soloist with orchestras including the Peabody Symphony under the baton of Marin Alsop, Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, and Hebei Symphony Orchestra. Festival performances in the US, Italy, and Canada. First and special prize winner in 71st Steinway International Piano Competition, First prize in Sigma Alpha Iota Piano Concerto Competition and Harrison Winter Piano Competition, Silver Medal, 68th Wideman International Piano Competition. President, World Piano Teachers Association. (WPTA)

Faculty – Piano

MICHAEL ADCOCK
Piano, Music Theory

AUDREY ANDRIST
Piano

MARIBETH GOWEN
Piano

ERIC HARPER
Jazz Piano

DIONNE LAUFMAN
Piano

JAEWON LEE
Piano, Piano Department Chair

YEJIN LEE
Piano

HASKELL SMALL
Piano, Music Theory, Composition

ARDITA STATOVCI
Piano

JEFFERY WATSON
Piano, Music Theory, Composition, Vocal Coaching

CHENGCHENG YAO
Piano

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All faculty

Music lessons

Piano lessons

Faculty – Piano

MICHAEL ADCOCK Piano, Music Theory

AUDREY ANDRIST Piano

MARIBETH GOWEN Piano

ERIC HARPER Jazz Piano

DIONNE LAUFMAN Piano

JAEWON LEE Piano, Piano Department Chair

YEJIN LEE Piano

HASKELL SMALL Piano, Music Theory, Composition

ARDITA STATOVCI Piano

JEFFERY WATSON Piano, Music Theory, Composition, Vocal Coaching

CHENGCHENG YAO Piano

MORE INFO

All faculty

Music lessons

Piano lessons

MICHAEL ADCOCK
Piano, Music Theory

AUDREY ANDRIST
Piano

MARIBETH GOWEN
Piano

ERIC HARPER
Jazz Piano

DIONNE LAUFMAN
Piano

JAEWON LEE
Piano, Piano Department Chair

YEJIN LEE
Piano

HASKELL SMALL
Piano, Music Theory, Composition

ARDITA STATOVCI
Piano

JEFFERY WATSON
Piano, Music Theory, Composition, Vocal Coaching

CHENGCHENG YAO
Piano