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Piano at USM

USM has seen much exciting growth in its piano area over the past few years. With 25 majors this year, USM now has the largest piano program in northern New England and is considered one of the most important centers of piano study in the region.

Our pianists are kept busy by the vast array of performance opportunities offered by USM. Concert band, wind ensemble, orchestra, chorale, chamber singers, opera workshop, and the jazz band all provide valuable keyboard ensemble experience. Piano chamber works such as the Beethoven and Brahms Trios, the Dvorak Piano Quintet, Mozart Violin Sonatas, Beethoven Violin and Cello Sonatas, and the Poulenc wind sonatas are commonly studied and performed. Pianists also perform lieder with vocalists and collaborate with jazz musicians in small combos. And Corthell Concert Hall, with its two superb Steinway concert grands (one belonging to the Portland Rossini Club), is an ideal venue for performing two-piano works such as Ravel's"Ma mere l'oye", the Brahms "Handel Variations", and even the two-piano accompaniment to "Carmina Burana".

For solo performers USM offers exciting options as well. Students have played concertos with the USM orchestra, and in recent years pianists have been featured regularly in the Honors Recitals. Private lessons and weekly studio classes are complemented by special piano workshops and master classes. Students have had the opportunity to study the solo repertoire with such distinguished guest artists as Emmanuel Ax, Seymour Bernstein, Mark Gibson, Panayis Lyras, and Nelita True.

The department also presents workshops for students and the public on topics such as piano technique, posture and alignment for pianists, piano technology, and piano pedagogy. And for inspiring and informative diversion there are road trips to master classes in Rockport, Durham, and Cambridge with artists the likes of Ruth Laredo, Theodore Lettvin, Frederick Moyer, and Christopher O'Riley. Most recently, a field trip to fortepiano masterbuilder Rod Regier's workshop in Freeport allowed our pianists the opportunity to play exquisite Mozart and Beethoven period instruments.

Off campus, USM piano students find numerous performing opportunities as well. They have appeared in concerts at the Bowdoin Music Festival, the Rockport Opera house, the Farnsworth Museum, the Portland Museum of Art, the Temple in Ocean Park, and the First Parish Church of Saco.

The excellence of our piano students has been recognized not only by enthusiastic audiences, but also by local critics and competition juries. A long list of USM piano students have won some of the most prestigious music awards in Maine, including the Rossini Club's Emily K. Rand Awards, the Anne Gannett Scholarship Fund, the Bay Chamber Music Awards, the Kotzschmar Memorial Trust Scholarship Fund, the Maine Music Teachers Association Pine Tree State Competition, the Bangor Symphony Concerto Competition, and the Portland Symphony Young Artist Concerto Competition.

But all the world is not a stage - our piano students are also busy at work in the community, serving as church organists, accompanying school choruses, and teaching.

And life after USM? Nothing but more fun, excitement, and hard work for our piano alums. They have gone on to graduate schools such as Indiana University, the California Institute of Technology, the University of Minnesota, Butler University, and the University of Western Washington, usually with generous scholarships and teaching assistantships. Others have taken teaching positions at schools throughout the region. Many are establishing successful private teaching studios, and finding themselves in great demand as accompanists.

Jazz Piano

USM offers the jazz piano major a solid technical background with a combination of private lessons in both jazz and classical piano. Performance opportunities and the study of jazz repertoire are offered in both big band and combo settings.  Private study is complemented with a well-rounded jazz curriculum which includes courses in improvisation, jazz history, jazz arranging, and jazz pedagogy.

New concentration! Piano Pedagogy- for more information click here or call Dr. Laura Kargul at 207-780-5271.

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University of Southern Maine Piano Faculty:

Applied Piano 
Anastasia Antonacos
Thomas Bucci
Laura Kargul

Class Piano
Anastasia Antonacos
Christine Kissack

Jazz Piano
Thomas Snow

Piano Pedagogy
Christine Kissack