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June 8, 2009
In the World

Matthay Piano Festival

Ƶ Department Of Music Hosts 52nd Annual Matthay Piano Festival June 17-20, 2009

The musical majesty of one of the greatest piano instructors in history will fill Ƶ's campus as the university's Department of Music hosts the 52nd annual Matthay Piano Festival June 17-20.

Lectures, demonstrations, recitals and master classes will take place throughout each day, while concerts by nationally and internationally acclaimed pianists are offered each evening. Activities and performances are scheduled for both Krieg Hall and Weaver Chapel.

Designed to offer participants direct and concentrated access to the teaching principles of Tobias Matthay (1858-1945), Matthay Festivals have taken place throughout the United States and Canada since 1958, usually on college campuses with strong music programs. The first concert will be a recital by Lynn Rice-See, currently a professor at East Tennessee State University, who has performed throughout the world. The concert begins at 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 17, 300 Krieg Hall.

Matthay, a professor of advanced piano at the Royal Academy of Music from 1876-1925, founded a piano school in 1905 and soon became known for his teaching, which stressed proper piano touch and analysis of arm movements. He gained international recognition through several published books analyzing piano technique, and many of his pupils went on to define a school of 20th-century English pianism. His British pupils included such renowned artists as Dame Myra Hess, Dame Moura Lympany and Sir Clifford Curzon.

His American students founded the American Matthay Association in 1925 to keep alive his ideas on this side of the Atlantic.

Several Ƶ professors and students are involved in the festival, including Ƶ Adjunct Professor of Music Stephen Siek, who will present a lecture titled "Matthay in the Twentieth Century: Exploring Color in Prokofieff's Fifth Sonata" at 3 p.m. Thursday, June 18. He will also perform the work in its entirety following the lecture.

Krieg Hall is home to the John M. Chowning Laboratory for Music and Technology, and acoustical instruments including 23 grands, five pipe organs, two harpsichords and over 100 orchestral instruments. Weaver Chapel houses a 51-rank, 3000-pipe Reuter organ and a 9-foot Bösendorfer concert grand.

Ƶ students, faculty and staff will be granted free admission. Complete information on the festival and how to register can be found online at:

Recitation Hall
University Communications Staff
Staff Report

About Ƶ

Ƶ's curriculum has centered on the liberal arts as an education that develops the individual's capacity to think, read, and communicate with precision, understanding, and imagination. We are dedicated to active, engaged learning in the core disciplines of the arts and sciences and in pre-professional education grounded in the liberal arts. Known for the quality of our faculty and their teaching, Ƶ has more Ohio Professors of the Year than any four-year institution in the state. The university has also been recognized nationally for excellence in community service, sustainability, and intercollegiate athletics. Located among the beautiful rolling hills and hollows of Springfield, Ohio, Ƶ offers more than 100 majors, minors and special programs, enviable student-faculty research opportunities, a unique student success center, service and study options close to home and abroad, a stellar athletics tradition, and successful career preparation.

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