Past NANM Scholarship Winners in Concert
Three first-place winners of the NANM Scholarship Competition (in piano) will be featured in a concert presented by the The Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy: Tabitha Johnson (2021 winner), Leonard Hayes (2015 winner), and Jeremy Jordan (2010 winner). Below is the official announcement.
The Frances Clark Center presents their next concert of the 2021-2022 Piano Stories On Stage season, next Friday, January 21st with Leonard Hayes, Tabitha Johnson, Jeremy Jordan, and Artina McCain. This concert will feature works by Dolores White, George Walker, Ellis Marsalis, Charles Mingus, and more! They will be joined by special guest host, Leah Claiborne.
Purchase a Piano Stories Season Pass and receive access to the full season at a discounted rate. Individual Tickets are also available for purchase. Visit our website for concert dates and program information.
Pianist Leonard Hayes is the prize winner of numerous piano competitions including first prize in the 2015 National Piano Competition sponsored by the National Association of Negro Musicians. As recitalist and chamber musician, Mr. Hayes has performed across the United States and abroad. Mr. Hayes received a High School Diploma from the Interlochen Arts Academy. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Lawrence University and a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music. Currently, Mr. Hayes is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Flora L. Thornton School of Music within the University of Southern California.
Tabitha Johnson is a 24-year-old Canadian classical pianist. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree with a minor in business entrepreneurship from McGill University (2019). Johnson completed her master’s degree at Manhattan School of Music May 2021. Highlights surrounding competitions include a concert tour of Ontario at the age of sixteen. At the Canadian Music Competition in Quebec, Johnson placed third. June 2018, she attended the Miami Music Festival where she won the concerto competition and performed with orchestra that year. She is the national winner for the 2021 NANM competition. Johnson is on faculty at The Spence School in Manhattan. Giving back to the community is something that is important to Tabitha. Missions trips overseas, fundraiser concerts, and projects to help those in need are huge priorities for Johnson.
Critically acclaimed, “a clear technical virtuoso," “a rare talent," and “a true Wunderkind,” Chicago born Jeremy Jordan burst onto the music scene at age nine playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in a live televised performance. Jordan was born into a musical family where his mother and father were his first instructors. They ensured that his burgeoning talent was nurtured by providing a strong foundation in classical training and also encouraged his study of improvised music and composition. Jordan went on to appear on the acclaimed radio program From The Top and From The Top: Live from Carnegie Hall performing Liszt. Since then Jordan has made his solo Carnegie Hall debut performing Chopin, Liszt, Schubert, and Wagner. After winning the 2006 Steinway Concerto Competition playing the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 1, Jordan delivered acclaimed performances with the Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra and concerto performances and recordings with the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Following studies at The Juilliard School, Jordan received undergraduate and graduate degrees on the Van Cliburn and Irene Diamond scholarships. Acclaimed for his virtuosic deliveries of his Liszt/Horowitz, Wagner, and Saint-Saens transcriptions, Jordan has also performed to thunderous applause in appearances at the United Nations Arts Council, the American Liszt Society, Concertgebouw, Tokyo Opera City, Prague’s Rudolfinum, and Chicago’s Ravinia Festival. He has appeared as a chamber musician in tours throughout North America, Europe, and Japan.
Jordan continues to compose solo piano music, chamber music, orchestral music, and electronic music. His compositions have debuted on National Public Radio and have received world premieres at Seattle’s Emerald City Music Festival, New York’s National Sawdust, and Ireland’s Sounds From a Safe Harbour. His most recent album For Flint featured several original jazz compositions and raised money to purchase clean water for families affected by the Flint Water Crisis.
Dedicated to promoting the works of Black and other underrepresented composers, Artina McCain curates concerts for multiple arts organizations exploring intersections of standard and underrepresented repertoire. She is an American Prize winner for her solo piano recordings and won a Gold Global Music Award for her recent album project Heritage featuring American composers. She won a critic’s table award for her program The Black Female Composer for the 2017 Austin Chamber Music Centers’ Annual Black Composers Concert. In 2021, Hal Leonard published her twenty-four arrangements of African American Folk Songs as a part of their traditional folk songs collection. Artina was a featured inspirational leader in the award-winning PBS documentary series Roadtrip Nation: Degree of Impact in an episode exploring the real-world impact of professionals with doctoral degrees in and outside of academia. Currently, she is Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis and Co-Founder/Director of the Memphis International Piano Festival and Competition.
The Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy is a not-for-profit educational institution (501c3). The Frances Clark Center advances its goals and serves local, national, and international audiences through its divisions: The New School for Music Study, The National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, Piano Magazine, and Teacher Education.
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