Lied Center Piano Circle, Lied staff and the Glenn Korff School of Music are excited to host our annual Lied Center Piano Academy (LCPA), July 15-19, 2024.
LCPA is designed for students entering grades 9 through their first year of college, Fall 2024.
The 2024 LCPA guest instructor is Eldred Marshall.
Tuition for The Academy is $550 per participant (including all processing fees). Need-based scholarships for tuition are available!
Dr. Paul Barnes is part of our LCPA leadership team as Artistic Director. Dr. Barnes is the Marguerite Scribante Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Glenn Korff School of Music and has been a part of the Academy since it’s inception. From Dr. Barnes:
The artistic collaboration that I have enjoyed with the Lied Center for Performing Arts has been a professional highlight of my 25 years at the Glenn Korff School of Music.Whether presenting a Philip Glass premiere or a CD release performance with Brooklyn Rider, the Lied Center has been at the leading edge of my musical world.It is with great joy that I accept the position of Artistic Director of the Lied Center Piano Academy.I have been passionately dedicated to inspiring young pianists in reaching their full human and musical potential and the LCPA fulfills that aspiration perfectly.My vision for the Academy includes creating an exhilarating and inspiring environment where high school pianists from all over the country can be challenged to explore every aspect of their musicianship.Using the world renowned faculty of the Glenn Korff School of Music, I want to inspire young pianists to think in very new ways about music that will make them a force for good in the world.Academy fellows will engage the rich tradition of piano music but also explore improvisation and the exciting world of contemporary piano music.I’m thrilled to put my creative, artistic, and pedagogical energy into the Lied Center Piano Academy and look forward to welcoming many young pianists to our campus this July.
HOW THE ACADEMY WILL BE STRUCTURED
To ensure a productive and positive experience, we will cap enrollment at 20 students.
Classes take place daily from approximately 9:00am-6:00pm with plenty of breaks and evening concerts on Tuesday and Thursday. Some classes may be small groups and others all together.
TUITION AND SCHOLARSHIPS
Tuition for the Piano Academy is $550 per participant (including all processing fees).
We will also be offering housing on the UNL campus for an additional cost of approximately $215 (including all processing fees). This cost includes staying in the dorms on campus as well as all meals.
A limited number of scholarships are available and can cover up to 100% of the cost of the tuition. Scholarships are need-based and should be requested at the time of application.
REPERTOIRE REQUIREMENTS
Students will be expected to prepare for the Academy with the following:
- The student must prepare two pieces from different eras and in different styles
- One piece shall be performance ready for final input from the instructor
- One piece shall have basic learning completed and be ready for “in-process” instruction
- The student will provide a clean score of each for instruction to be email to Lied staff to share with instructor
Students will also be assigned Chamber repertoire in advance to prepare for the Academy!
AUDITION SUBMISSION AND APPLICATION
Every applicant is required to submit a video recording of you performing a selection from standard piano repertoire up to 3 minutes in length (smart-phone videos are acceptable). Applicants may attach a video file via Google Drive OR a link to a YouTube video.
Application deadline is May 31st, 2024 but DO NOT DELAY! PARTICIPATION FOR THE ACADEMY IS LIMITED TO 20 STUDENTS! GET YOUR APPLICATION IN ASAP TO ENSURE A SPOT IN THE ACADEMY!
If you have questions about The Lied Center Piano Academy, please contact Lied Education Outreach Manager, Sasha Dobson at sashadobson@unl.edu
ACADEMY CURRICULUM
Praised by the New York Times for his “Lisztian thunder and deft fluidity,” and the San Francisco Chronicle as “ferociously virtuosic,” pianist Paul Barnes has electrified audiences with his intensely expressive playing and cutting-edge programming. He has been featured seven times on APM’s Performance Today, on the cover of Clavier Magazine, and his recordings are streamed worldwide.
Celebrating his twenty-four-year collaboration with Philip Glass, Barnes commissioned and gave the world premiere of Glass’s Piano Quintet “Annunciation.” The work is Glass’s first piano quintet and first work based on Greek Orthodox chant. In a Journal Star interview, Glass stated: “You have a world-class pianist in Paul Barnes. He’s a pure piano virtuoso.” The Journal Star described the world premiere performance as “meditative… striking… touchingly played by Barnes and the Chiara Quartet, ‘Annunciation’ is a romantic, late-period Glass masterwork.” Fred Child, host of APR’s Performance Today was present for the premiere and wrote: “Pianist Paul Barnes put together and performed a thrilling evening of music!” Child’s interview with Barnes and Glass and the word premiere performance of the quintet was featured twice on Performance Today. The New York premiere took place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where New York Classical Review called the quintet “a fascinating mosaic of Glass’s late style…with a warm inner expression that seemed to echo Brahms.” PBS NewsHour recently featured a Nebraska Educational Telecommunications video production highlighting Barnes’ creative collaboration with Glass and the new quintet. Barnes recording of the quintet with string quartet superstars Brooklyn Rider was released in October of 2019 to critical acclaim. French publication ResMusica wrote: "Paul Barnes, whose pianistic lines are always clear, is a marvel of diologue with Brooklyn Rider."
Barnes’ twelfth CD New Generations: The New Etudes of Philip Glass and Music of the Next Generation has also received rave reviews. Gramophone Magazine wrote, “Pianists of Barnes’s great technique and musicality are a boon to new music.” And American Record Guide commented, “This disc provides further proof of Barnes’s ability to communicate new music with flair and passion.” Produced by Orange Mountain Music, the recording features a selection of Glass’s etudes juxtaposed with works by N. Lincoln Hanks, Lucas Floyd, Jason Bahr, Zack Stanton, Ivan Moody, and Jonah Gallagher. The sonic result is a breathtaking panorama of the energetic and expressive landscape that is twenty-first century piano music. Barnes has performed the recital version of New Generations in Vienna, Seoul, Rome, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Chicago, Interlochen, and most recently at the Music Teachers National Association Convention in Glass’s hometown of Baltimore. Barnes also commissioned and gave the world premiere of Glass’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (After Lewis and Clark). The Omaha World Herald praised Barnes playing for his “driving intensity and exhilaration.” Nebraska Educational Telecommunications' production "The Lewis and Clark Concerto," a documentary/performance of the concerto featuring Barnes, won an Emmy for Best Performance Production. Additional performances included collaborations with conductor Marin Alsop at the prestigious Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra where the Seattle Times called Barnes' performance "an impressive feat." The world-premiere recording with the NWCO was released by Orange Mountain Music. Gramophone Magazine remarked that this recording is "certainly one of the most enjoyable recent releases of Glass's music...Paul Barnes is a shining soloist." Barnes recently gave the Chinese premiere of the concerto at the famous Sichuan Conservatory of Music in Chengdu China as part of an inaugural American Music festival.
Orange Mountain Music also released Barnes' recording of his transcriptions from the operas of Philip Glass, including both the Trilogy Sonata and the Orphée Suite for Piano. Gramophone Magazine observed, “Barnes offers a surprisingly expressive reading…. Atmosphere and rhythmic vitality are important, and these qualities Barnes has in abundance.” The American Record noted, "Barnes is an expressive pianist with a lovely tone and a flair for the dramatic." The Trilogy Sonata and the Orphée Suite for Piano are published by Chester Music of London and are available at sheetmusicplus.com. Barnes’ eleventh CD The American Virtuoso featuring the music of Philip Glass, Samuel Barber, and Joan Tower was released on Orange Mountain Music to much critical acclaim. The American Record Guide wrote, "Another fine release from the amazing pianist Paul Barnes...with a pianist like this, new American music is in good hands." Barnes also commissioned a new piano concerto Ancient Keys written by Victoria Bond based on a Greek Orthodox chant. The world-premiere recording of this concerto as well as Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was released on Albany Records. Barnes also commissioned Victoria Bond to write a new piano work based on a Greek Orthodox crucifixion hymn. Simeron Kremate (Today is Suspended) was co-commissioned by the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts and the SDG Music Foundation in Chicago. The world premiere of Bond’s new work was given at Kimball Recital Hall on March 3, 2019 with the Chicago premiere on March 10 at the beautiful Nichols Hall at the Music Institute of Chicago. Barnes is Marguerite Scribante Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Glenn Korff School of Music. He teaches during the summer at the Vienna International Piano Academy and the Amalfi Coast Music Festival. In great demand as a pedagogue and clinician, Barnes has served as convention artist at several state MTNA conventions, most recently at Virginia in October of 2018, and was recently named ‘Teacher of the Year” by the Nebraska Music Teachers Association.
Barnes latest recital A Bright Sadness: Piano music inspired by Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Native American chant features a contemplative and cathartic program of piano works inspired by the mystical world of chant. Barnes, also a Greek Orthodox chanter, has collaborated most recently with Philip Glass and Victoria Bond to create piano works based on ancient byzantine and Jewish chant. Barnes has also been a passionate champion of the works of Liszt and performs Liszt’s late masterpiece, Via Crucis, the Way of the Cross exploring the painful but ultimately hopeful journey of Christ to the cross. The overall theme of “bright sadness” permeates the program as the tremendous depth and intensity of ancient chant is seen through the bright prism of hope and love. New chant-based works by Native flutist Ron Warren, David von Kampen, and Matthew Arndt are given their premiere performances. Barnes’ recordings are available on Spotify, Pandora, ITunes, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon.
Tom Larson is Assistant Professor of Composition (Emerging Media and Digital Arts) at the Glenn Korff School of Music. At the GKSoM, Tom has taught courses in Film Scoring, Digital Audio Recording and Production, Jazz History, Rock History, and Jazz Piano. His current course work includes teaching Film Scoring and Creative Sound Design, Digital Audio Recording/Production, and private Composition lessons. He also is a member of the UNL Faculty Jazz Ensemble, for which he serves as Music Director and Composer in Residence.
Prior to becoming a faculty member at UNL, Tom was the co-owner of Studio Q Recording in Lincoln, where he produced music for TV and radio advertising, industrial videos, and documentary films. Among his credits are the scores for three documentaries for the PBS American Experience series (a production of WGBH-TV, Boston): In the White Man's Image, Around the World in 72 Days, and Monkey Trial (which won a 2002 Peabody Award). He also scored the documentaries Willa Cather: The Road is All for WNET-TV (New York), Ashes from the Dust for the PBS series NOVA, and the PBS specials Standing Bear's Footprint, Most Honorable Son, and In Search of the Oregon Trail. Tom has written extensively for the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, and the University of Illinois Asian Studies Department. His music has also been used on the CBS-TV series The District. His commercial credits include music written for Phoenix-based Music Oasis, LA-based Music Animals, Chicago-based Pfeifer Music Partners and General Learning Communications, and advertising agencies in Lincoln and Omaha.
As a recording engineer, Tom has worked on numerous projects as tracking, mixing, and/or mastering engineer for artists such as Paul Barnes, Jackie Allen, Hans Sturm, François Rabbath, Diane Barger, Hannah Huston, Jandy Shin, The Nebraska Jazz Orchestra, The Concordia String Trio, Brad Colerick, and others.
Tom is also the author of three textbooks, The History and Tradition of Jazz (6th ed.), Modern Sounds: The Artistry of Contemporary Jazz (2nd ed.), and The History of Rock and Roll (6th ed.), all of which are published by Kendall/Hunt Publishing (Dubuque, IA). He has released two albums of original jazz compositions, Flashback (2003), and Focus (2019). He has studied jazz piano with Dean Earle, Fred Hersch, Bruce Barth, and Kenny Werner, jazz arranging with Herb Pomeroy, and music composition with Robert Beadell and Randall Snyder. In addition to performing with jazz ensembles throughout the Midwest and East Coast, he has performed with The Tokyo Brass Art Orchestra, Paul Shaffer, Victor Lewis, Dave Stryker, John Ellis, Jerry Bergonzi, Chris Potter, Alex Riel, Howard Levy, Jackie Allen, Bobby Shew, Claude Williams, Bo Diddley, the Omaha Symphony, the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra, the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra, and Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra.
A Lincoln native, Tom received a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is also an avid runner and completed the Boston Marathon in 2005, 2006, and 2007.
David von Kampen (b. 1986) is a composer based in Lincoln, Nebraska. David’s creative work spans a wide variety of genres and styles, including jazz, choral music, hymnody and liturgy, solo voice, chamber music, and musical theater. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Kansas, and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Nebraska. He has studied composition with James Barnes, Dan Gailey, Forrest Pierce, Eric Richards, and Randall Snyder.
David is a six-time Downbeat Award winner in graduate-level jazz writing categories, a finalist for the American Prize in composition, and was named the MTNA Distinguished Composer of the Year for his song cycle "Under the Silver and Home Again." He has been among ten winners of the ORTUS International New Music Competition, the recipient of an ASCAP Young Jazz Composer award, winner of the San Francisco Choral Artists New Voices Project, winner of the National Band Association’s Young Jazz Composers Competition, and received Honorable Mention in the New York Youth Symphony First Music Commissions. Puddin’ and the Grumble, David’s original musical with playwright Becky Boesen, was one of seven finalists for the Richard Rodgers award.
David has over 80 choral and instrumental compositions and arrangements published with Walton Music, G. Schirmer, Hal Leonard, Santa Barbara, Concordia Publishing House, Pavane Publishing, UNC Jazz Press, Graphite Publishing, MusicSpoke, and others. His music has been performed by the KHORIKOS Vocal Ensemble, the Cambridge Chamber Singers, the L.A. Choral Lab, KC VITAs Chamber Choir, the Taiwan Youth Festival Chorus, San Francisco Choral Artists, the U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, and by collegiate, all-state, high school, and church ensembles throughout the United States and internationally.
David is a lecturer of music theory and literature at the University of Nebraska, where he directs the UNL Jazz Singers and Jazz Orchestra. He also teaches applied composition at Concordia University, Neb., and serves as Music Coordinator for Sanctuary Worship at Christ Lutheran Church in Lincoln. David is a member of ASCAP, the Jazz Education Network, and the American Choral Directors Association. He is active as a conductor and pianist, and as a clinician for vocal and instrumental ensembles. He lives in Lincoln with his wife Mollie and two daughters.
Since entering the Preparatory Division of the Peabody Conservatory at age eight under the tutelage of Julian Martin, Mark Clinton has worked extensively with some of the world's foremost pianists, among them Leon Fleisher, John Perry, Carlo Zecchi, and Tatiana Nikolayeva. This critically acclaimed pianist has garnered prizes at such prestigious international competitions as the 1987 William Kapell International Piano Competition and the 1991 Joanna Hodges Piano Competition. He has been featured frequently on national radio and television broadcasts, including National Public Radio's Performance Today and Monitor Radio. Critics have noted his “powerful performance [combined with] sublime lyricism” (Salisbury Daily Times), the “…drive and security of his pianism” (Baltimore Sun), and his “luminous, concentrated playing” (Washington Post). He has appeared throughout the United States as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the National Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the United States Air Force Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, Concert Artists of Baltimore, the Lincoln Symphony, and the Springfield (Missouri) Symphony.
For a number of years, Clinton joined with pianist Nicole Narboni to form the highly successful Clinton/Narboni Duo. They received prizes at several major international competitions, including the 1994 ProPiano New York Recital Competition, the 1995 National Federation of Music Clubs Ellis Duo Piano Competition, the 1996 Concorso Internazionale «Carlo Soliva» (four-hand division), and the Alvin Perlman Prize at the Fifth Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition. Clinton and Narboni’s debut compact disc recording (Élan CD #82278), featuring previously unpublished works for two pianos by the French composer Germaine Tailleferre, received critical acclaim in broadcast and print media throughout the United States and abroad. Gramophone magazine honored the recording as an “editor’s choice” selection for the month of November 1997, while describing Clinton and Narboni as “absolutely first rate.” Their recording of works for two pianos by Czech composer Bohuslav Martinù (Élan CD #82422) was hailed by critics as “a major release” and “an indispensable album for devotees of European Modernism.”
Clinton’s current concert activities reflect his commitment to a wide range of performing experiences. Highlights of his recent calendar include enthusiastically received recitals at the American Cathedral in Paris, Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, and the historic rotunda of Steinway Hall in New York City. Other noteworthy performances have included an appearance as guest soloist in Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano Concerto with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, an international tour with the Montecristo Ensemble (together with violinist Mihai Craioveanu, violist Lisa Nelson, and cellist Nina Gordon), a performance of the Dvorak Piano Quintet in A major with the Chiara Quartet, a Midwest tour with the Amicitia Duo, and a concert of chamber music with strings at the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts in Holland, Michigan.
Mark Clinton has shared his musical insights with gifted students from around the world while serving on the faculties of Salisbury University, the Aspen Institute, Missouri Southern State University, the Ameropa Chamber Music Festival in Prague, Czech Republic, and the International Chamber Music Festival in Kyustendil, Bulgaria. He also frequently serves as an adjudicator for important national and international competitions. Clinton is currently Professor of Piano and Head of the Keyboard Area at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Mark Clinton is a Steinway artist.
The Press Enterprise (Riverside, CA) hailed his “dazzling technique” and his “clean, tidy approach.” Music critic Laurence Vittes described him as an “illumination in music,” and said of his all-Beethoven recital: “Marshall presented a recital so full of musical thrills and beauties, and so in identification with the composer’s own persona, that, for a few hours, it was as if he were communing across the centuries to conjure up a rare and magical musical spectrum.” The Telegraf Online Constanta (Romania) reported that Marshall “captivated the audience” in Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 20, which he conducted from the piano.
Eldred Marshall began studying the piano at age six and played in public by age seven. His prodigious and inquisitive mind allowed him to master large swaths of the piano repertoire quickly as well as consistently win top prizes at the competitions he entered as a child. By 16, he debuted with orchestra, playing Brahms’s Piano Concerto no. 2 in B-flat Major with the Victor Valley Symphony Orchestra. Before entering into Yale University, where he graduated with honors with a B.A. in Political Science, he had already performed all over the United States.
The critically-acclaimed pianist has performed in Spain, Italy, the Republic of San Marino, Belgium, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, the Ukraine, the People’s Republic of China, and Canada. He has performed the entire cycle of 32 Piano Sonatas of Beethoven in public, from memory, as a concentrated series, twice. Other notable tour projects include all-Bach piano recital programs including the Goldberg Variations, the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.
As an orchestral conductor, Marshall has led the Ukrainian State Academic Orchestra (Kiev, Ukraine), the Kharkiv Youth Symphony (Kharkiv, Ukraine), the Pleven Philharmonic Orchestra (Pleven, Bulgaria), the Vidin Philharmonic Orchestra (Vidin, Bulgaria), the Filharmonica Oltenia di Craiova (Craiova, Romania), and the Constanta “Black Sea” Philharmonic Orchestra (Constanta, Romania). Additionally, he has led several opera productions, such as Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne, Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, as well as Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande.
The 2023-2024 Season will feature Marshall making his debuts as a pianist with the East Oregon Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4) and with the National Symphony Orchestra of Teleradio-Moldova as pianist and conductor. He will return to Bulgaria to tour three cities with the Pleven Philharmonic Orchestra, doubling as pianist and conductor in May 2024. Further, he will perform another tour of China in the summer of 2024.
Marshall earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance degree from the University of North Texas (UNT) in 2018. Additionally, he earned three Master of Music degrees from Southern Methodist University (SMU): piano (2011), organ (2012) and orchestral conducting (2013). Institutions at which he has taught include Grambling State University, Texas A&M Commerce, UNT, SMU, and North Texas Central College. His doctoral dissertation topic was on the art of conducting piano concerti from the piano – performance practice, discipline and whether or not it is “real conducting.”
Presently, Marshall serves as the Artistic Director/Conductor of the Mansfield Philharmonic Orchestra. Additionally, he serves as Associate Director of Music at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Rockwall, TX. He is also the Music Director/Conductor of the Music Ministry Conservatory Choir, the founding Artistic Director/Conductor of the Lucas Chorale, and the Organist/Music Director of Grace Fellowship Seventh-day Adventist Church in Lucas, TX.
Originally from Eldorado, IL, Madeline Rogers earned a Master of Music from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as a student of André Watts, and a Doctorate in Musical Arts from the University of Nebraska with Paul Barnes. Rogers is an accomplished solo and collaborative performer in the US and abroad. In 2019 she collaborated with faculty from various campuses across Nebraska to present a program of music inspired by Shakespeare at Churchill College in Cambridge, UK. In July of 2022, Rogers spent several weeks researching the late music of Brahms in Baden-Baden and performing solo recitals at Brahmshaus Baden-Baden and a collaborative recital in Karlsruhe with clarinetist Valentin Müller. Her work in Baden-Baden will continue with another residency at Brahmshaus in the summer of 2024. A proponent of living composers, Rogers has worked closely with Victoria Bond to revive a piano concerto that was last performed in 1997 and was the first to premiere the two-piano version of the concerto in 2021. Her most recent scholarship has been on the music of H. Leslie Adams, which will culminate in a new edition of his Horn and Piano Sonata with the American Composers Alliance. Rogers previously taught applied and collaborative piano as an Artist-Faculty member at the Omaha Conservatory of Music and is currently Assistant Professor of Keyboard Studies at Berea College. Rogers performs regularly with the Lexington based Chamber Music Ensemble AmadeusLex.
Kaleb is a music teacher and collaborator based in Lincoln, Nebraska. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he studied with Dr. Paul Barnes. Kaleb studied Organ with Dr. Christopher Marks and Brent Shaw. While studying at UNL he attended the Vienna International Piano Academy and has performed in masterclasses with artists such as Joyce Yang, Sean Chen, and Eva Polgar. Kaleb was recently a teaching artist with the Lied Center Piano Academy and has led music theory classes with Lied Center Community Learning.
Kaleb is a frequent collaborator and music director with multiple performing arts organizations in the Lincoln and Omaha area. Recent credits include: The Prom (Nebraska Wesleyan University, 2024), Cabaret (Lincoln Community Playhouse, 2024), Pippin (Nebraska Wesleyan University, 2023), Catch Me If You Can (Pinewood Performing Arts, 2023), Ordinary Days (University of Nebraska-Lincoln Theatrix, 2023), and Into The Woods (Lincoln Public Schools, 2023). Kaleb is the collaborative pianist for the Lied Center Performing Arts Triple Threat Intensive where he accompanies 40+ high school students in masterclasses led by leading professionals such as Special Tony Award Winner Jason Michael Webb, Q Smith, Alicia Olatuja, and Katie Pohlman.
Kaleb grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota where he studied Viola in the Black Hills Suzuki School with Carol Knowles. While in Rapid City, he played viola with the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra, accompanied local choirs, and played piano with Black Hills Community Theater (BHCT) and Advocates for Creative Theater Students (ACTS). His previous piano teachers include Anne Foster, Jim MacInnes, Symeon Wasseen, and Paul Barnes.
Kaleb currently serves as the Assistant Music Director at Saint Paul First United Methodist Church in Lincoln, Nebraska and runs his own music studio where he teaches piano and music theory. With over 10 years as a collaborator, he has experience with solo voice, instrumental, chamber music, choir, and musical theater.
In his free time Kaleb enjoys hiking, reading, and taking care of his two cats Koda and Suki.
Nathaniel Brown is a BM in Piano Performance and minoring in Entrepreneurship at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He returns for his third year as a counselor and his fifth year with the Piano Academy. Originally from Houston, Texas, and a graduate of Clear Creek High School, he is enjoying his time in Nebraska. He is involved across campus as a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity, the University Honors Program, and accompanies the Big Red Singers Show Choir at UNL.
He has been playing piano for 15 years and is passionate about musical theatre. He’s worked at the TADA Theater in Lincoln Nebraska as the accompanist for their production of Company and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He previously has played second keyboard for their production of Godspell and at theaters in Galveston, Texas, as well as music directing The Addams Family last summer.
Some of his notable performances include the Lied Center’s EmeraLied Gala in 2022, debuting a piece by composer Bryce Hayes entitled Mythos and Memoirs, and performing in student convocation recitals every semester for the UNL music student body. You can find out more about Nathaniel on his website and recordings on his YouTube. https://nathanielbrownpiano.weebly.com/
Lily Harms is currently studying towards her Bachelors of Music Education and is in her third year at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This is her second year as a counselor with the Piano Academy. As far as her teaching background goes, she is teaching piano lessons at her old piano studio and has been acquainted with students ranging from kindergarten to eleventh grade. Furthermore, she is teaching with the UNL String Project with students from various schools in LPS.
Lily has learned to play a handful of instruments throughout her twenty one years, but piano is what she considers to be her main instrument. She has been playing for about sixteen years and continues to study under Dr. Clinton at UNL. She also accompanies various vocal students through the university and is playing in the musical, Big Fish, as both the rehearsal pianist and keyboard one player. Currently, she is the choir accompanist at Our Saviours Luthern Church and also plays organ during services. She also plays for the church services at the retirement home, The Landing. Lily has performed for various studio recitals and ensembles, and is currently prepping for her senior recital in the fall.
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