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Intermediate Piano
Ingrid Clarfield, NCTM
Saturday, April 3, 10:30 a.m.
Ingrid Jacobson Clarfield, NCTM, professor of piano emerita at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, is a nationally recognized performer, lecturer, and author. She has presented workshops, lecture-recitals, and master classes in more than 175 cities in 40 states across North America, including state and national MTNA Conferences, National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy, and other prestigious conferences and festivals.
Clarfield has written 26 books and is the subject of a documentary titled Take a Bow: The Ingrid Clarfield Story. Her accolades are numerous and rich: she was named MTNA Foundation Fellow in 2006. In 2009, she was the first recipient of the New Jersey MTA Teacher of the Year Award, and in 2012, she was awarded the prestigious MTNA Teacher of the Year. In 2015, she received the NCKP Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2017, she received the first Jacobs Music Steinway Al C. Rinaldi Lifetime Achievement Award, followed by the Music Educators Association of NJ also awarded her their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. Clarfield was inducted into the first Steinway and Sons Teachers Hall of Fame in 2019. In 2024, she was the recipient of the MTNA Distinguished Service Award.
Clarfield maintains a private studio where her pre-college students have won hundreds of awards in state, national, and international competitions, resulting in performances in such venues as Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Kennedy Center, Merkin Concert Hall, Steinway Hall, and concert halls in Beijing. Her students have won the MTNA Competition at the State and Division levels, with many progressing to the National Finals. Most significant to Clarfield is her students’ involvement in community outreach concerts raising money for charities benefitting children and performing for nursing homes and other adult facilities.
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Advanced Piano
Nancy Weems
Monday, April 5, 9:15 a.m.
Nancy Weems, pianist and Madison Endowed Professor of Piano, Emerita, of the University of Houston Moores School of Music, has performed extensively as a concert artist in the United States, Europe, Asia, Mexico, Russia, and Central America, in addition to her long and distinguished career as a recognized pedagogue. As a United States Artistic Ambassador, Weems represented the U.S. in three international concert tours in 14 countries, including Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Russia, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Korea, China, Malaysia, Mexico, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Costa Rica, and presented a solo debut recital at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. She has appeared as guest artist with numerous orchestras and has given master classes in conservatories in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the West Indies, including events sponsored by the Eastman School of Music, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul, Korea, the International Piano Master Class Series of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the Royal Academy of Music in London. A four-city tour of the People’s Republic of China included concerts, masterclasses, and lectures in Beijing, Nanjing, Shenzhen and Chengdu.
Weems often serves as an adjudicator of national and international competitions in the U.S., Asia, and Europe and is a frequent presenter at music teacher conferences worldwide, including the MTNA state and national conventions and the World Piano Pedagogy Conference. Her students have won top awards in numerous prestigious national and international piano competitions, including the Music Teachers National Association Performance Competition, the Van Cliburn International, Leeds International, Bach International, Sydney International, New Orleans International, and Tchaikovsky International. An impressive number of her former students maintain teaching positions at major universities and music schools in the U.S. and abroad, and many enjoy professional concert careers worldwide. Her outstanding teaching career was featured in a cover article in Piano Magazine, titled “A Legacy of Excellence – A Conversation with John and Nancy Weems.”
Other notable awards include the Texas Music Teachers Association Outstanding Collegiate Teaching Award, University of Houston Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, 1995 Moores School of Music Faculty of the Year Award, and a Grammy Award nomination in 1990.
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