Howard Community College Continuing Ed Piano

October 25, 2022 Post a Comment

The piano faculty at the Music Institute at HCC is a group of dedicated and experienced teachers who foster the love of music and enable lifelong enjoyment of music in their students. Their love of music and pursuit of excellence is demonstrated through their own achievements and actions. Most of the piano faculty have obtained a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance, and continue to distinguish themselves through performances in the Baltimore-Washington area as well as on national and international stages. In addition to teaching and performing, they are also active members of the National Guild of Music Teachers and Music Teachers National Association, and its affiliated organizations, on the state and county levels.

The faculty work with students of all ages. Whether you are a beginner, a piano student heading to a music conservatory or a college music department, someone who wants to enjoy playing the piano for yourself, or a working/retired adult who wants to realize the dream of playing the piano, come to The Music Institute and the faculty will support, encourage, and guide you to your goal.

Alan Blackman - Jazz piano and improvisation

Alan Blackman -

Baltimore based pianist and award-winning composer. He and his ensembles have performed at Blues Alley, the Kennedy Center, and many festivals and venues from San Francisco to New York. Recent performances have been with Donny McCaslin, Joe Locke, Ferenc Nemeth, Mike Pope, Warren Wolf, Tim Green, Alex Norris, and Sunna Gunnlaugs among others. He was selected to be part of the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center, The Banff Centre Residency program and has received grants from the Maryland State Arts Council in jazz composition, performance and world music as well as the Chamber Music of America's prestigious New Jazz Works multi-year commission. Arrangements and performances of his music have been featured on NBC's Parenthood, NPR's Talk of the Nation, and JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater, as well as Stephen King's movie, 1408.

Turning Point featuring Donny McCaslin was released in 2011, Alone Together: The 2 Piano Project in 2012 and The Coastal Suite, a multimedia work is out now on Top Floor Records. Chapter 3, released in 2018 is the latest recording and features guitarist Gilad Hekselman.

Interested in lessons with Alan? Click here to contact Dr. Wei-Der Huang, Coordinator of Piano Studies
Dr. Wei-Der Huang - classical piano

Wei-Der Huang began playing piano at a young age in Taiwan. Huang earned her Bachelor of Music degree at Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taiwan with Hsuan Lee and Kuo-Shang Kao, and won the first prize in the Taipei City Piano Competition. She holds the Master of Music degree and Professional Study Diploma from Manhattan School of Music in New York City where she was a student of Solomon Mikowsky and Marc Silverman. While in New York, she was the Music Director and Organist at Grace Lutheran Church, Astoria. Dr. Huang received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Maryland at College Park where she studied with Anne Koscielny and Raymond Hanson.

She is an active member of the Music Teachers National Association and Maryland State Music Teachers Association and has performed at Hubbard Recital Hall (New York), Homer Ulrich Recital Hall, NIH Masur Auditorium, Concert Hall at Montgomery College, Strathmore Hall, Levine School of Music, Washington Conservatory of Music, Charles Sumner School Museum, and Smith Theatre at Howard Community College. In 2003, Huang, member of the Octtava Piano Duo, was invited to perform on the West Coast and in Taiwan. Dr. Huang is currently on the piano faculty of Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland and formerly served on the faculty of Washington Conservatory of Music in Bethesda, Maryland. She is currently the Music Director and Organist at Greenbelt Community Church in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Interested in lessons with Wei-Der? Click here to contact Kristina Suter, Coordinator of Piano Studies.
Dr. Hsien-Ann Meng, classical piano

Hsien-Ann Meng holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from the University of Maryland, both Master of Music in Piano Performance and Music History degrees and a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance degree from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. She has studied and coached with distinguished teachers and artists Walter Hautzig, Marian Hahn, Yehoved Kaplinsky, Samuel Sanders, Anne Koscielny, Bradford Gowen, and Raymond Hanson.

Dr. Meng is active in the Baltimore-Washington area as a duo-pianist with the Octtava Piano Duo and chamber musician, performing frequently as a member of the Friday Morning Music Club in its recital series, as guest artist on the Ward Virts Concert Series at College of Southern Maryland, and as a member of faculty on the Faculty Concert Series at Howard Community College. Her duo performances has taken her to perform internationally in the National Recital Hall and Shih Chien University in Taipei, Taiwan. In November 2015, the Octtava Piano Duo was featured as the duo soloists in a performance of Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos in Eb Major with the Howard County Concert Orchestra in Columbia Maryland. Most recently, Hsien-Ann Meng was the pianist in a performance of Darius Milhaud's La Création du monde in a faculty ensemble performance at Howard Community College. In October 2016, she was a part of a five-piano ensemble performing the premiere of the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony arranged for five-pianos by the Steinway Artists Jane Tan. Dr. Meng is also a lecturer on topics in music, and she has appeared as pre-concert lecturer for the Columbia Orchestra Concert Series, the Candlelight Concert Series, as guest lecturer for OASIS in Bethesda, Maryland, SASI in Columbia, Maryland, and as a member of a panel of speakers for the Women's Studies Speaker Series at Howard Community College.

Hsien-Ann Meng has held teaching positions at Washington Conservatory of Music in Washington, D. C. and Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Music Department at Howard Community College. She is Director of the Howard Community College Concert Series. As the Director of the Howard Community College Concert Series, she's built a successful Guest Artist Series that has featured stellar classical and jazz artists such as the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo, Fleisher-Jacobson Piano Duo, William Bolcom and Joan Morris, Amit Peled, Kenneth Slowik, and Alex Norris. She's worked with partner organizations such as Candlelight Concert Series and the Howard County Poetry & Literature Society in bringing esteemed author, Stuart Isacoff, to the college for a lecture event on Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization.

Dr. Meng is an active piano teacher in the Washington D. C. Metropolitan area. She is a member of the National Music Teachers Association and both state and county music teachers association. Her students participate in the Trinity College London Piano Exams, are county and state competition award winners, and many have gone on to become piano teachers, performers/recording artists, and accompanist for dance companies. Dr. Meng is a sought-after adjudicator in local, county, and state piano competitions.

Interested in lessons with Dr, Meng? Click here to contact Dr. Wei-Der Huang, Coordinator of Piano Studies
Bill Scanlan Murphy, jazz piano, theory, composition, and improvisation

Bill Scanlan Murphy was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1954 and holds an MA degree in Music from the University of Oxford. A professionally complex life has included hosting radio shows (rock, classical, and documentary) for the BBC, writing music for television dramas, and working with diverse performers ranging from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to the Beach Boys and Charles Manson. "Cease To Exist," a radio documentary on the musical life of Manson, remains the most-listened-to documentary in the history of the BBC Radio One network. A parallel career as a naval historian has resulted in a book on early submarines and numerous articles and radio features, including one on how many composers have been naval officers. Apart from teaching at Howard Community College, Murphy also teaches at Harford Community College and is Director of Music at Lovely Lane United Methodist Church in Baltimore.

Interested in lessons with Bill? Click here to contact Dr. Wei-Der Huang, Coordinator of Piano Studies
Dr. Lisa Rehwoldt, classical piano

Lisa Rehwoldt holds the degrees of Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, and the Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College. She counts among her distinguished teachers Lana Bodnar, Joseph Schwartz, Paul Schenly, Theodore Lettvin, and Ellen Mack.

A native of Santa Barbara, California, Rehwoldt debuted with the Santa Barbara Symphony at the age of twelve as first prize winner in the Santa Barbara Young Soloists Competition. She has since made numerous appearances with orchestra, including the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Maria Symphony, the Rainier Symphony in Seattle, Washington, and the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra in the San Francisco Bay Area. A top prizewinner in the Westminster Graduate Piano Competition in Princeton, New Jersey, the Young Musicians Foundation Competition at Ohio State University, and the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition in California, Rehwoldt was also chosen to perform in the master classes of such renowned artists as Konrad Wolff, Jerome Lowenthal, Martin Katz, and Lili Kraus, who praised Rehwoldt for " the joy she brings in her playing."

Rehwoldt has appeared as chamber musician on the Music in the Mansion series at Strathmore Hall, the BSO series Chamber Music by Candlelight, Sundays at Central in Baltimore, the Music at UMBC Concert Series, and Sundays at Three in Columbia, and as soloist at Baltimore's University Baptist Church Concert Series, the Friday Noon Concert Series at the Arts Club of Washington DC, and the Rising Star Concert Series in McLean, Virginia. Rehwoldt has performed as a member of flute and piano duo LisaLisa and as a member of the piano duo Accordare, known for their "snappy precision" and "spirited performance style"(The Baltimore Sun).

Dr. Rehwoldt has served on the music faculties at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, CCBC Essex and Dundalk campuses, and at Notre Dame of Maryland University, where she currently is the lecturer in music for the Doctoral Student Interdisciplinary Seminar. As a faculty member at Howard Community College since 2000, Rehwoldt was recognized in 2018-2019 for her "intellectual and creative contributions" as Inspiring Adjunct Faculty Member. In 2022 she began serving as Interim Program Manager for the Music Institute at Howard Community College. She has a private piano studio in Ellicott City where she lives with her two children.
Dr. Hsiu-Hui Wang-Myers, classical piano

Dr. Hsiu-Hui Wang-Myers, classical piano

Interested in lessons with Dr. Wang-Myers? Click here to contact Dr. Wei-Der Huang, Coordinator of Piano Studies
David Wasser, classical piano

David Wasser, classical

As a youth, David Wasser performed regularly in Washington, DC. and its surrounding areas where he won numerous awards. From a concerto performance with orchestra at age 14, the music critic for the Washington Star said, "He has magnificent hands and a businesslike attitude at the keyboard which suggested more years. ...one would like to have heard more of his playing, for he seems destined to go far."

Mr. Wasser is a graduate of the Juilliard School where, as a scholarship student, he studied with Jacob Lateiner and Adele Marcus. While at Juilliard, he performed in numerous concerts both at Juilliard and in the greater New York area with Lincoln Center Tours. Other major teachers include, Stewart Gordon, Ron Elliston, Cleveland Page, Nina Lelchuk and Kristina Suter. David was an award winner at what is now the William Kappell International Piano Competition. David is a father of two and lives with his wife in Columbia, Md. He is a retired CPA.

For more than 60 years, David Wasser, noted for his "musical sensitivity and pianistic virtuosity", has performed in numerous solo and collaborative settings throughout the eastern United States. He is a member of the Howard County Music Teachers Association, and is a member of the piano faculty at Howard Community College.

Interested in lessons with David? Click here to contact Dr. Wei-Der Huang, Coordinator of Piano Studies
I-Wen Tseng

Being a piano teacher since the 1990s, I-Wen Tseng has taught piano privately in New Jersey, New York City, and hosted annual student recitals at the Steinway Gallery in New Jersey. Her students have achieved high standard results from ABRSM exams from level 1-8, and NJMTA piano festivals. In 2014, Ms. Tseng relocated to Maryland and began her private piano studio in 2015. She currently maintains a studio in Columbia. Ms. Tseng is affiliated with Music Teachers National Association, Maryland State Music Teachers Association, Howard County Music Teachers, The Greater Columbia Music Teachers Association, andSteinway Hall Piano . Aside from maintaining a private teaching studio, Ms. Tseng is also actively involved in judging competitions and festivals throughout the State of Maryland.

Ms. Tseng holds a Bachelor and Master degree in Piano Performance fromManhattan School of Music.Her teachers included Dr. Solomon Mikowsky , Dr. Marc Silverman , and she was coached by a number of world renowned chamber musicians including Ani Kavafian and Isidore Cohen . She performed as soloist and collaborative pianist in New York City, New Jersey, Maryland. Ms. Tseng was awarded the Best Bach Performance award at the Washington International Pianist Artists Competition .

As a dedicated teacher, Ms. Tseng desired to deepen her knowledge in pedagogy and piano technique, which led her to the Taubman Approach at the Golandsky Institute . Since her discovery of the Taubman Approach, Ms. Tseng has dedicated herself to help those who wish to play the piano with greater ease and those who have sustained an injury, to recover and once again be able to enjoy playing piano. Currently she is a candidate of the Golandsky Institute's Taubman Approach Certified Teacher program, where she is being mentored by Mr. Robert Durso . In the past two years Ms. Tseng started giving introductory Taubman Approach workshop sand talks to Maryland's local MTA chapter as well as internationally in Taiwan, for which she has received excellent reviews.

Interested in lessons with I-Wen? Click here to contact Dr. Wei-Der Huang, Coordinator of Piano Studies
Dr. Kuei-I Wu, classical piano

Kuei-I Wu, began winning national prizes at the age of nine and is one of the most celebrated pianists to have come from Taiwan. Praised for her elegant style and exuberant technique, Dr. Wu made her major concerto appearance at the National Dr. Sun Yet-sen Memorial Hall with the National Taiwan Academy of Arts Symphony Orchestra before immigrating to the United States.

Highly sought after as both a soloist and a chamber musician, Dr. Wu has collaborated with members from BSO, NSO and Colorado Symphony, and has performed at numerous festivals in Taiwan, Spain, Austria and here in the United States. Her concerto appearances has included performances of Liszt Concerto No.2 at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, Saint-Saëns Carneval of Animals at Kussmual Theater in Frederic and Mozart Concert "Coronation" at Smith Theater with Howard County Concert Orchestra. Dr. Wu is also a prize winner of several international piano competitions including the Mieczyslaw Munz Piano Competition, the Promising Artist Award at the National Society of Arts and Letters Competition and New York's Five Towns Music and Arts Foundation Piano Competition.

Dr. Wu received a bachelor's degree from San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied with Mach McCray and was named "Outstanding Pianist" at graduation. While attending the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University under the tutelage of Boris Slutsky, Dr. Wu was employed as an accompanying assistant and worked with renowned artists and pedagogues, pianist, Leon Fleisher and baritone, John Shirley-Quirk. Dr. Wu holds a Doctoral of Musical Arts degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she studied with Santiago Rodriguez.

Equally adept and passionate about teaching, Dr. Wu has been a member of MTNA and American College of Musicians since 2005. She had guided numerous students to winning competitions and performing in Carnegie Hall. Dr. Wu currently teaches at Howard Community College and Hood College while maintaining an active private studio in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Interested in lessons with Kuei-I? Click here to contact Dr. Wei-Der Huang, Coordinator of Piano Studies
Sangmi Yoon, classical piano

Sangmi Yoon started learning the piano at the age of seven in Korea. By the age of ten, she started winning prizes in competitions including the Art Festival of the State Competition and the Seoul Competition in Korea. This was the real starting point of her musical life. After she immigrated to the United States, she continued her piano studies with Ji Eun Lee and started to expand her musical career by winning prizes in competitions such as the U.S. Youth Piano Competition of Hymns in Washington D.C. and the MSMTA E.R. Davis Collegiate Piano Competition in Maryland. She also won the third prize and Best Required Piece in the 24th International Young Artists Piano Competition, in Washington D.C., in which she was invited to perform at the State of the Arts Cultural Series and the U.S. State Department. Ms. Yoon also premiered a composition by Li-Ly Chang,Capriccio for piano solo at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage.

Ms. Yoon studied with Dr. Hsiu-Hui Wang at Howard Community College for three years where she was the recipient of the HCC Rose Buck-Lew Family Piano Endowment Scholarship. Ms. Yoon continued to study with Dr. Hsiu-Hui Wang at Goucher College where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Music and the Fine and Performing Arts Scholarship (FPAS). She received her Master of Music degree and Graduate Performance Diploma in piano performance from Longy School of Music, and she studied with the Dean of the Conservatory, Wayman Chin. While at Longy, she was selected for the honor to have private lessons with the internationally known pianist Peter Serkin, who gave private lessons to a select group of advanced Longy Conservatory piano majors.

Ms. Yoon has collaborated and performed in numerous chamber groups. She is also active in accompanying for various types of solo instruments and for choirs. Ms. Yoon started to expand her teaching experiences while she was living in Boston for three years. She also taught at the Jubilee Christian Music School in Tennessee as an intern during the summer of 2015. After a long journey, Ms. Yoon returned to Howard Community College, her 'home school' to share her stories with her students and community through her teaching and performances. Ms. Yoon also works as the TMI Office Assistant at Howard Community College.

Interested in lessons with Sangmi? Click here to contact Dr. Wei-Der Huang, Coordinator of Piano Studies
Eun Suk Cha, Classical Piano

Eun Suk Cha, a prodigious and passionate pianist from South Korea, has concertized in renowned venues across the United States, Europe, and South Korea. She has performed for the Winners' Recital of the National Artists Competition at Lincoln Center, New York City; Kresge Theater at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh; Jessen and Bates Halls at the University of Texas at Austin, TX, Finn Center Tateuchi Hall, CA; Stoughton Opera House, WI, USA; Sala dei Notari, Perugia, Italy, at the Music Fest Perugia; Wiener Saal, Salzburg, Austria, for the Akademie Konzert at the Mozarteum International Summer Academy; Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, and Universal Arts Center, and Yurim Art Hall, Seoul, South Korea.

A versatile artist with theoretical and technical expertise in classical music, Eun Suk has a broad repertoire including solo, concerto, and chamber works ranging from Baroque to 20^th-century. Her perspectives on 20^th-century music, as presented in her thesis "Charles Ives' Paradoxes in the Three-page Sonata," earned high praises from internationally acclaimed music theorists, such as Professors Elliott Antokoletz and B. Glenn Chandler. She has performed concerti with the Parlarte Symphonic Orchestra, Perugia, Italy, conducted by Dan Wen Wei; Yonsei University Orchestra, Seoul, Korea, conducted by Sang-Jin Kim, as a Concerto Competition winner; and Sunhwa Arts School Orchestra, Seoul, Korea, conducted by Kwang Yu, also as a Concerto Competition winner. Eun Suk has won a number of notable prizes at various national and international competitions, including the Second Prize in the National Artists Competition, NY, United States; the First Prize in the Sixth Competition of the Piano Society of Korea, Korea; the Second Prize in the Brahms Competition, Korea; the Third Prize in the Sunhwa Chamber Music Competition, Korea; the Third Prize in the Paderewski International Piano Competition, CT, United States. In addition, she has won several scholarships from the International Keyboard Institute & Festival, New York City; the Malinin Fedkina Internationale Sommer-Meisterklasse , Germany; Carnegie Mellon University ; and the Society of Lee Sumie , Korea . Notably, she was an honorable recipient of A David Renner Endowed Presidential Academic Excellence Scholarships.

Eun Suk was born in Seoul, Korea, and started honing her performance skills at Sunwha Arts School in 2003. Her formative studies took place at Yonsei University, Korea, where she obtained a Bachelor of Music degree in 2008 and a Master of Music degree in 2011 under Prof. Keum-Bong Kim. After she moved to the United States, she studied piano with Professors Sergey Schepkin and Enrique Graf for her Master of Music degree at Carnegie Mellon University, where she also took Pedagogy Skills courses with Prof. Hanna W. Li. Thereafter, she studied with Professors David A. Renner and Andrew A. Brownell at the University of Texas at Austin for a Doctor of Musical Arts degree until 2017. During her doctoral training, Eun Suk achieved profound insights and understanding of the 20^th-century musicology under the mentorship of Prof. Elliott Antokoletz.