Guest Lecturer: Gail Berenson

Gail Berenson will be giving two lectures: "Strategies for Coping with Performance Anxiety" 12-1 PM and "An Injury-Preventative Prescription: Healthy Practicing Strategies" 2-3 PM. This event is free and open to the public.

Gail Berenson's Biography

Gail Berenson is Professor of Piano at Ohio University, Athens where she was awarded the "Distinguished Teacher of the Year" Award in 2000. Prior to coming to Ohio, she was on the faculty of the University of Illinois, Urbana. An active performer and passionate chamber music collaborator, she performs with flutist, Alison Brown Sincoff, as a member of the Ohio University Lyric Duo.

As a result of her distinguished work as a piano pedagogue, along with her reputation as an expert on musician wellness issues, she is much in demand as a performer, clinician, master class artist, adjudicator, author, reviewer and pedagogy consultant. She has performed and lectured in over thirty states, as well as Great Britain, Belgium, Switzerland, Israel, Portugal, Taiwan, China and Canada. She was a presenter at the European Piano Teachers Conference in Manchester, England in 2005 and in Funchal, Madeira in 2006, and presented a session at the 2010 International Society of Music Education’s World Congress in Beijing, China.  This fall she will serve as a Yamaha Passport to Music piano instructor on board the Crystal Symphony.

Ms. Berenson began to build a reputation as a performing artist early when at age eleven she began accompanying the forty-member male chorus conducted by her piano teacher, appearing in concert throughout Wisconsin and Illinois. A native of Kenosha, Wisconsin, she continued her education at Northwestern University, completing degrees in piano performance, studying piano with Louis Crowder and Guy Duckworth. She also performed in master classes with world-renowned accompanist Gerald Moore, baritone Pierre Bernac, duo-pianists Vronsky and Babin and, at the Lucerne International Music Festival, with pianist and accomplished chamber musician, Mieczyslaw Horszowski.

Ms. Berenson is one of the co-authors of A Symposium for Pianists and Teachers: Strategies to Develop Mind and Body for Optimal Performance and, as a member of the Lorenz Advisory Board she contributed to the innovative piano method, Piano Discoveries, and is co-author of "Ask the Professor". She also authored three chapters for the fourth edition of James Lyke's book, Creative Piano Teaching. She has written articles for Keyboard Companion, the on-line journal, Piano Pedagogy Forum and served as a contributing editor to Piano & Keyboard.

She is a Past President of Music Teachers National Association, an association of 23,000 members. She has also held the position of President-Elect and President, Vice President, Chair of the 2002 and 2003 MTNA National Conference Committees, has served on the 1996 and 1997 Conference Committees and was one of the founding members of the MTNA Pedagogy Committee. She represents the United States and the piano area as a member of the International Society of Music Education’s recently established Forum on Instrumental and Vocal Studio Performance Teaching. She has held several national posts with the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy and the World Piano Pedagogy Conference and has chaired National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy's Wellness for Pianists Committee. A past president of the Ohio Music Teachers Association, she holds MTNA's Master Certificate in piano and piano pedagogy and was the recipient of the 1999 OMTA "Certified Teacher of the Year" award and the 2004 OMTA "Collegiate Teacher of the Year" award. In recognition of her significant contributions to the music world and the music teaching profession, she was awarded an MTNA Foundation Fellow Award in 2007. Her students are performing and teaching in independent studios and on college faculties throughout the world. More information can be found at www.gailberenson.com.