Gary L. Ingle is Executive Director of Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), Cincinnati, OH, the oldest music teacher association in the United States.  MTNA, founded in 1876, is a professional association of 24,000 studio music teachers who teach in independent and collegiate settings nationwide.  MTNA’s mission is to advance the value of music teaching and music making to society and to support the professionalism of music teachers.

Dr. Ingle holds the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree with emphases in conducting, voice, and higher education administration from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. Additional studies include the Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham. He is Secretary of the Board of Trustees for the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Music Council.
making to society and to support the professionalism of music teachers

Ken Hoppmann serves as Associate Professor of Music at Union College, Lincoln, Nebraska, where he teaches Piano, Piano Pedagogy, Music History, and World Music.  

In addition to teaching, Hoppmann maintains an active schedule as a performer.  He has performed with the Ft. Collins Symphony Orchestra, Casper Symphony Orchestra, the University of Wyoming Symphony Orchestra and the Northern Nevada Chamber Orchestra, as well as presenting numerous recitals and concerts with the Wyoming Council on the Arts “Artists in Education” program and the University of Wyoming cultural outreach program.  He is a founding member of the popular piano quartet PianoFOURte, which is included in the Nebraska Arts Council’s Touring Roster and performs regularly throughout the state.  Solo live performances of works by Bach, Schumann, and Liszt are featured in his CD, “Ken Hoppmann-LIVE!”

An active pianist, teacher, and lecturer throughout North America and Europe, William Wellborn has given concerts in fifteen states and six countries.  Guest artist appearances include the American Liszt Society, the New Orleans Institute for the Performing Arts, the Paderewski Festival, and the Chopin chez George Sand festival de piano in La Châtre, France.  In addition to performances with several Texas orchestras, Mr. Wellborn has appeared a soloist with the Sudeten Philharmonie in Poland.  

Wellborn was conference artist for the 2002 Missouri Music Teachers Association Conference, and has given lectures and masterclasses for organizations such as the Music Teachers Association of California, the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, the Texas Music Teachers Association, the Chicago Music Teachers Association, the 2000 World Pedagogy Conference, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada, and the Conservatory of Paris.

A faculty member of the San Francisco Conservatory since 1989, Wellborn also teaches advanced students from around the world each summer at the Masterclasses of Saint Malo in Saint Malo, France.  His students frequently receive numerous awards in local, state, and national competitions.  Wellborn's latest CD, a solo disc of works by Scarlatti, Mozart, Debussy, Chopin, Granados, and Liszt, will be available on the CAMBRIA label in the fall of 2003

Paul Horsley was appointed classical music critic of The Kansas City Star in February 2000. Before that he spent eight years as program annotator and musicologist for the Philadelphia Orchestra. He holds degrees in journalism and piano performance from Wichita State University and his Master's and Ph.D. in musicology from Cornell University. He served as music critic in Ithaca, NY, and at the Houston Press, and he was an assistant professor of music history at Louisiana State University. He has received research grants from the Fulbright Foundation and other groups. This summer was a New York Times Fellow at the American Dance Festival's Institute on Dance Criticism in Durham, N.C. He has written on music for Stagebill, The New York Times, Symphony Magazine, Chamber Music, and other publications. He loves Kansas City and just refinanced his Brookside bungalow.

Marvin Blickenstaff  is known among piano teachers throughout the country for his teaching, lecturing, performing, and publishing.  He has presented workshops for piano teachers throughout the USA, and appears frequently as soloist and lecturer at state conventions of music teachers and at the national convention of the Music Teachers National Association.  For the past fourteen years he has been on the faculty of International Workshops where he has performed and lectured in Canada, Austria, Scotland, Norway, France, and Switzerland.  In 1992 he was honored by the Indiana Music Teachers Association with the citation of “Teacher of the Year.”  In 1995 The Registered Piano Teachers of New Zealand sponsored him in concert and a 15-lecture tour of that country. The “Marvin Blickenstaff Endowment Fund“ was established in his honor in 2001 by the Music Teachers National Association Foundation. He currently serves as Board President of the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy.

Music Pathways, a 36-book instructional series was co-authored by Blickenstaff, Lynn Freeman Olson and Louise Bianchi.  He serves as a Piano editor for Carl Fischer Music Publishers and has published anthologies Of works by Bach, Beethoven and Grieg.  He is also a consultant with the Frederick Harris Music Company (Toronto) and has published two editions of Celebration Series:   A Handbook for Teachers with co-authors Cathy Albergo and Reid Alexander.  Blickenstaff is an associate editor of the Periodical Keyboard Companion.

Keturah Lawrence is a private piano instructor teaching lessons in her home studio in Wichita, KS. She received her Bachelor of Music & Master of Music degrees from Wichita State University in piano pedagogy. Keturah has been teaching piano privately for over ten years to students of all ages and skill levels. She is active in several music teacher associations, currently serving as Music Progression Chair for the Kansas Music Teacher’s Association (KMTA) and the Wichita Metropolitan Music Teacher’s Association (WMMTA). Keturah is also a licensed Kindermusik¨ instructor and is a member of the Kindermusik Educators Association. She is co-owner of HeartSong, LLC which offers Kindermusik classes for children ages 0-7 years at two locations in Wichita, KS. 

Professor Martha Hilley joined the faculty of The University of Texas School of Music in 1982 as coordinator of group piano. In 1986, she became head of the keyboard division and served in that position until 1989. She served as Associate Director of the School of Music as well as Director of Undergraduate Studies from 1994-1999 and as Chair of the University of Texas Faculty Council for the 1999-2000 academic year. She currently serves as South Central Vice President for the Texas Council of Faculty Senates. Ms. Hilley has been an active participant in workshops, conferences and seminars on the international, national, state and local levels.

Her abilities as a teacher were recognized in 1983 when she received the Texas Excellence Teaching Award and again in 1988 when she was awarded one of four Dad's Association Centennial Fellowships for excellence in undergraduate teaching. In 1997, she was awarded the Outstanding Collegiate Teacher Award by the Texas Music Teachers Association. In 2002 she was named as MTNA Foundation Fellow for the state of Texas.

Professor Hilley is co-author of two college piano texts: Piano for the Developing Musician (in 5th edition) and Piano for Pleasure (in 4th edition). The texts were the first to embrace dedicated digital sequencer technology through disks furnished to teachers as well as the first to provide web-based computer tutorials.

Wendy Stevens graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Piano Pedagogy from Wichita State University in 2000 and will be graduating with her Master of Music in Theory/Composition in the fall of 2003.  Wendy is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM) since 2002.  She is an active member of the Music Teacher's National Association, Kansas Music Teacher's Association, and the Wichita Metropolitan Music Teacher's Association (WMMTA).  Wendy currently serves as the Arts Advocacy Chair for KMTA and Vice-President of WMMTA since 2002.  In addition to teaching and composing, Wendy enjoys developing music worksheets and supplemental resources for music education.  You can see many of her worksheets and other resources on her website:

Known as a tireless worker, a “team player” and a consummate musician, Bobby Watson has been a first-call musician for nearly three decades. A resident of New York for most of his professional life, Bobby served as a member of the adjunct faculty and taught private saxophone at William Patterson University from 1985-1986 and Manhattan School of Music from 1996-1999.

He has served as musical director of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and worked with a potpourri of notable musicians, peers, elder statesmen and colleagues including, but not limited to: drummers Max Roach and Louis Hayes, fellow saxophonists George Coleman and Branford Marsalis, celebrated multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis who joined the Jazz Messengers at least in part at the suggestion of Watson. Watson launched the first edition of Horizon, an acoustic quintet now considered one of the preeminent small groups of the mid-1980s to mid-1990s.

He has some 26 recordings as a, appears on close to 100 other recordings as either co-leader or in a supporting role for other like-minded musicians and has recorded more than 100 original composition.

In 2000, Watson was approached to return to his native midwestern surroundings on the Kansas-Missouri border. Watson accepted the challenge and subsequently that same year he was selected as the first “William D. and Mary Grant/Missouri, Distinguished Professorship in Jazz Studies.” The past three years he has served as the director of jazz studies at the University of Missouri/Kansas City, Conservatory of Music.

JCCC Assistant Professor Michael Moreland will present a 50 minute introduction to some of the latest software and hardware used in the MIDI lab at Johnson County Community College.  Focus will be on Finale notation software, and Digital Performer sequencing software. Attendees will have a brief presentation of basic techniques, "hands-on" time to experiment on their own, and time for individual technical questions.

Ann Collins, Western Illinois University professor emeritus, maintains a busy schedule as a clinician at conventions and colleges throughout the country and as an instructor of jazz piano clinics and camps for piano teachers and students. She has appeared at MENC and MTNA National Conventions, the International Association for Jazz Education, the National Group Piano Symposium, the National Piano Pedagogy Conference, and as International Association of Jazz Educators Teacher-Training Institute faculty, as well as on numerous state convention programs and university seminars. Her diverse professional experience includes public school and independent studio piano teaching, university group piano and piano pedagogy teaching, and music administration. She continues to perform jazz and is the author of the "Sing and Play", preschool piano series (Stipes) and "Lead Lines and Chord Changes" (Alfred). Her newest publication "Jazz Work" (Alfred) includes play-along CDs and GM Disks and is designed to help bridge the gap between traditional piano study and jazz instruction. Ann was a member of the MNTA / IAJE Alliance Committee charged with creating guidelines for teaching Resource Team representing independent studio teachers.

With rich detail of color and gesture and an enormous sophistication of line and form, Stanislav Ioudenitch won the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal at the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in June 2001.  He was also the recipient of a Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music for his semifinal round collaboration with the renowned Takacs Quartet.  In addition to these significant prizes, he was awarded two years of international concert engagements and career management, as well as a compact disc recording of his award-winning Cliburn Competition recital performances for the harmonia mundi label.  

Mr. Ioudenitch has netted top prizes at the Busoni, Kapell, and Maria Callas Competitions, among others.  In the 2003-2004 season, Mr. Ioudenitch looks forward to orchestral performances in Columbus, Denver, Honolulu, Milan, Istanbul (Turkey), and Cape Town (South Africa), as well as returning to New York for a recital debut as part of Carnegie’s inaugural season at Zankel Hall on April 30, 2004.

A former student of Dmitri Bashkirov, with whom he studied at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid, he also attended the prestigious International Piano Foundation Theo Lieven in Cadenabbia, Italy for two years, working with Leon Fleisher, William Grant Nabore, Murray Perahia, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Fou Ts’ong, and Rosalyn Tureck.  He also studied with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Robert Weirich at the University of Missouri in Kansas City.  In November 2002, Mr. Ioudenitch was the youngest teacher ever invited to give master classes at the International Piano Foundation and Academy Theo Lieven.  He now teaches at Park University in Missouri.

Mr. Prutsman first won international recognition as a medallist at the 1990 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, where he received special awards for his performance of Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev.  The following year he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and received a medal in the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Belgium.

Active as a composer and arranger, Mr. Prutsman’s arrangements have been performed and recorded by leading musicians throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, including the Kronos Quartet, Dawn Upshaw and Yo-Yo Ma, who performed Mr. Prutsman’s arrangements as part of The Silk Road Project.  Mr. Prutsman’s award-winning compositions include Dramatis Personae, for clarinet and string quartet, which won first prize at the 2001 ICA International Composition Competition.  His works have been premiered by the Sinfonia of Colorado, Todd Palmer, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet, among others.  Mr. Prutsman’s recent compositions for piano and orchestra include Ocean Parables, a multi-media work for solo piano, orchestra, exotic percussion and video which was premiered by the Santa Cruz Symphony and Jazz Fantasy on the name B-A-C-H for piano and string orchestra.  Upcoming projects include a composition and arrangements to be performed by violinist, Chee-Yun.

Mr. Prutsman is heard frequently on National Public Radio’s Performance today, and on numerous syndicated and local radio programs across the United States and abroad, including performances on the C.B.C, Berlin Radio, Radio France, and B.B.C. London.  He was also featured in the PBS documentary on the Tchaikovsky Competition.  His film and video performances include Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata with violinist Pamela Frank, which was featured in the film, Immortal Beloved.  Mr. Prutsman’s radio and television credits also include compositions for the sports television station ESPN, arrangements for the films, The Man Who Cried and Big Bad Love, and music for commercials featuring Yo-Yo Ma.

Associate Professor of piano, served as Assistant Professor at Ithaca College and Instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison prior to coming to Hastings.  He holds the Bachelor of Music degree in Applied Music and Music Education from Ithaca College, and the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Piano Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Dr. Sokasits is an active soloist, recitalist, accompanist, and chamber musician—since joining the Hastings College faculty, he has presented nearly two hundred concerts at local, regional, and national venues.  He is also a regular performer and presenter at local, state, and national conventions of professional music organizations such as the College Music Society and the Music Teachers National Association.  At Hastings College, Dr. Sokasits teaches studio and class piano, piano literature, piano pedagogy, and chamber music.  In the summers, he has served as accompanist for the North American Children’s Chorales (NY) and for the voice workshops of master teacher Thomas Houser at Marywood University (PA).  He continues to serve as a member of the piano faculty of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp (MI).

Mahour Mellat Parast was born in 1973 in Iran.  He grew up in a music loving family, where his father was a musician, composer and a player of Tar, Setar, Piano and Turkish Tar.  Also, his grandfather was a player of Turkish Tar.

He started playing tar at the age of 14, under the supervision of his father.  In 1989, he was awarded the first rank Tar player in the Province of Gilan, Iran.

In 2001 he was admitted to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) to obtain a Ph.D. in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, with a 3-year Fellowship award.  Since his arrival in the USA he has performed numerous concerts and educational programs throughout the country, as well as recording a CD of Classical Persian music entitled “Freedom-Improvisation.”