Judges and Procedure

The judging procedure for each round in the Regional Division will be a ranking system. Each of the three judges in the preliminary and live performance rounds will independently rank contestants without discussion among the judges. A Foundation director will total the scores and those contestants with the lowest scores will move to the next round or, in the case of the final round, receive first, second, and third place awards. If there is a tie that affects the outcome, the judges will confer only on the performances of the contestants involved in the tie and vote to break the tie.

All judges chosen for this division will reside outside of the five Rocky Mountain states. None of the preliminary judges are eligible to judge the live performance rounds in the same year. Only the audio portion and contestant number of each applicant's DVD submission will be sent to the three judges of the preliminary round.

In the UW Division, the UW keyboard faculty will select the contestants for the preliminary round. There will be one judge for both preliminary and final rounds.

James Giles regularly performs to acclaim in important musical centers in America, Europe, and Asia. The past few seasons have included a tour of China, performances in Italy and Bosnia, and a recital at Warsaw’s Chopin Academy of Music. Last season, in addition to recitals in Chicago, Oklahoma, and Buffalo, he appeared with the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic in Russia. During 2008-2009 he will return to China for recitals and a performance of the Brahms Concerto No. 2; perform at the Virginia Waring Competition’s Gala Benefit honoring Byron Janis; and perform concertos by Michael Daugherty and Timothy Dunne in Chicago and Ithaca.

In an eclectic repertoire encompassing the solo and chamber music literatures, Giles is equally at home in the standard repertoire as in the music of our time. He has commissioned and premiered works by William Bolcom, C. Curtis-Smith, Stephen Hough, Lowell Liebermann, Ned Rorem, Augusta Read Thomas, Earl Wild, and James Wintle. Most of these new works are featured on Giles’s new Albany Records release entitled “American Virtuoso.”

His Paris recital at the Salle Cortot in 2004 was hailed as “a true revelation, due equally to the pianist’s artistry as to his choice of program.” After a recital at the Sibelius Academy, the critic for Helsinki’s main newspaper wrote that “Giles is a technically polished, elegant pianist.” And a London critic called his 2003 Wigmore Hall recital “one of the most sheerly inspired piano recitals I can remember hearing for some time” and added that “with a riveting intelligence given to everything he played, it was the kind of recital you never really forget.”

In the fall of 2005, and in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Giles joined three other pianists as a part of a “Pianists for New Orleans” tour. They raised over $70,000 for the Musical Arts Society of New Orleans, a non-profit group that supports classical music in the city.

He has performed with New York’s Jupiter Symphony; the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra in Queen Elizabeth Hall; the Kharkiv Philharmonic in Ukraine; and with the Opera Orchestra of New York in Alice Tully Hall. After his Tully Hall solo recital debut, critic Harris Goldsmith wrote: “Giles has a truly distinctive interpretive persona. This was beautiful pianism – direct and unmannered.” Other tours have included concerts in Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Series, Salt Lake City’s Assembly Hall Concert Series, and in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Musikhalle in Hamburg, and the Purcell Room at London’s South Bank Centre. He has given live recitals over the public radio stations of New York, Boston, Chicago, and Indianapolis. His compact disc of works by Schumann and Prokofiev is available on England’s Master Musicians label. As a chamber musician he has collaborated with members of the National and Chicago Symphonies and with members of the Pacifica, Cassatt, Chicago, Ying, Chester, St. Lawrence, Essex, Lincoln, and Miami Quartets, as well as singers Aprile Millo and Anthony Dean Griffey.

A native of North Carolina, Dr. Giles studied with Byron Janis at the Manhattan School of Music, Jerome Lowenthal at the Juilliard School, Nelita True at the Eastman School of Music, and Robert Shannon at Oberlin College.

The pianist received early career assistance from the Clarisse B. Kampel Foundation and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Florence with the legendary pianist Lazar Berman. He was the recipient of a fellowship grant and the $25,000 Christel Award from the American Pianists Association and now serves on the APA’s National Advisory Board. He won first prizes at the New Orleans International Piano Competition, the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition, and the Music Teachers National Association Competition. As a student he was awarded the prestigious William Petschek Scholarship at the Juilliard School and the Rudolf Serkin Award for outstanding graduate at the Oberlin College Conservatory. He has written for Piano and Keyboard magazine and has presented lecture-recitals at the national conventions of the Music Teachers National Association, the College Music Society, and Pi Kappa Lambda. He has served on the juries of several international piano competitions, including the Cleveland International Piano Competition (screening jury), New Orleans International Piano Competition, and the Oberlin International Piano Competition.

Dr. Giles is on the piano faculty at Northwestern University. He has served as conference artist for the music teachers associations of Oklahoma, Arizona, and Nevada and frequently gives master classes at colleges and universities nationwide. He has been a guest professor at the Sibelius Academy in Finland and at Indiana University, where he has twice taught the students of Menahem Pressler. He has formerly served on the faculties of the University of North Texas and the Interlochen Arts Academy. He is the founder of the Las Vegas Piano Institute, an educational summer program for young pianists, and is the chair of the piano department at the Eastern Music Festival during the summers. More information may be found at jamesgiles.net.

Jane Magrath is well known as an author, clinician, and pianist. Her book The Pianist's Guide to Standard Teaching and Performance Literature has become a classic reference work for pianists throughout the country, and Magrath's work in the area of the standard classical teaching literature has been central to the current revival of interest in this music throughout the U.S. She currently has more than thirty five volumes published with Alfred Publishing, and her music editions are used widely throughout the U.S. and abroad. Her classical series include the Masterwork Classics series in 9 volumes, Encore, Masterpieces with Flair, Melodious Masterpieces, Sonatina Masterworks, Modern Masterworks, and the Classics Alive series.

Dr. Magrath is frequently in demand as a clinician and teacher, and during the last twenty years has performed and given presentations in over forty states including Alaska, and on three continents. Her workshops and master classes have drawn international acclaim. Magrath has served as Piano Coordinator for National Conventions of Music Teachers National Association and given presentations at MTNA National Conventions, the European Piano Teachers Association Conference, the International Society for Music Education, the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy, the World Piano Pedagogy Conference and at many state MTNA conventions. Her articles have appeared in the major piano journals. She was named the first recipient of the MTNA/Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award for the Outstanding Contribution to Piano Pedagogy. For many years she contributed New Music Reviews to Clavier and she currently serves as an editor for the Piano Pedagogy Forum. Magrath’s regular column Polyphony can be found in The American Music Teacher. She is most at home working in the studio and classroom with students, and collaborating with faculty colleagues and area teachers.

A native of South Carolina, Magrath received her education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at Wesleyan College, and was the first person to receive the D.M. in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Northwestern University. A faculty member at the University of Oklahoma since 1981, she received a Regents' Award for Superior Teaching as well as an Associates' Distinguished Lectureship Award on two occasions and a Rinsland Award for Excellence in Educational Research. Currently, Magrath holds the Grant Endowed Chair in Piano Pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma, where she was named Rothbaum Presidential Professor of Excellence in the Arts and serves as Director of Piano Pedagogy. Her students have won numerous prizes and competitions. She was named Oklahoma Music Teachers Association Teacher of the Year by that association, and also Oklahoma Musician of the Year by the Oklahoma Federation of Music Clubs. She was awarded a Regents' Professorship at the University of Oklahoma in 2007.

Concert pianist Kevin Robert Orr maintains an active performance schedule throughout North America and abroad. A 2009-2011 University of Florida Research Foundation Professor, Orr’s international activities have been particularly focused in China, where he is director of the annual Chinese-American International Piano Institute (www.CAIpianoinstitute.org), an event he co-founded, held at the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu. Additionally, he has performed and taught in Australia, South Korea, Canada, and throughout Europe. Orr’s frequent collaborative work has paired him with such internationally acclaimed artists as Karl Leister (clarinet, Berlin Philharmonic) and James Thompson (trumpet, Montreal Symphony).

Orr ’s 2007 solo CD of Johannes Brahms’ Sonata No. 3, Op. 5 and the Ballades, Op. 10, has garnered international critical acclaim. Gramophone critic, Jed Distler wrote "Within four bars, I recognise that a formidable, seasoned artist is at work...two minutes into the sonata's first movement and I'm hooked by Kevin Robert Orr's huge sound, pliable command of Brahms's thick writing, bracing sense of rhythm, and generous phrasing." Similarly, American Record Guide remarked, "This is first-rate playing, expressive and assured." Orr’s follow-up CD, Johannes Brahms Sonatas 1 and 2, is presently underway.

A strong advocate of the music of living composers, Orr has premiered and recorded solo and ensemble works by composers Jennifer Margaret Barker, Paul Basler, Houston Dunleavy, Paul Richards, Robert Rollin, and John Weinsweig, The 2005 release of Barker’s CD “Geenyoch” features Orr on the composer’s 2001 solo piano work, Geenyoch Ballant, a performance about which critic Jon Conrad wrote Orr performed ‘brilliantly.’ Orr’s performances of both new and standard classical repertoire have been heard on Public Radio throughout the United States.

In addition to the Institute in Chengdu, China, Orr is founder and director of the University of Florida Young Pianists Festival (www.arts.ufl.edu/music/piano-festival), a week-long event for advanced pre-college pianists held in mid-June of each year at the University of Florida School of Music. Currently, Dr. Orr is Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Florida, where he maintains a studio of many advanced pupils. His recordings can be obtained at kevinrobertorr.com, or downloaded at itunes.com.

Eric Unruh serves as Dean of the School of Fine Arts and Humanities at Casper College. Unruh holds the D.M. and M.M. degrees in piano performance and pedagogy from Northwestern University, and the B.A. in piano performance from Bethany College, Kansas. At Northwestern, he performed in masterclasses for clinicians John Browning and Claude Frank. He studied piano with Laurence Davis, Robert Weirich, and David Kaiserman, and pedagogy with Frances Larimer and Elvina Pearce.

He has performed as soloist with the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra, the Powder River Symphony, the Orquestra Filharmônia de Goiás, Brazil, and various chamber and choral organizations. He is a choral composer, and has published works with Pavane Publishing (Hal Leonard) www.pavanepublishing.com and Augsburg Fortress. He has composed works commissioned by the Natrona, Albany, and Converse county school districts, the Casper College choral program through grants by the Wyoming Community Foundation, and the Gertrude Krampert Theatre.

Dr. Unruh has served the National Association of Schools of Music as Chair of the Commission on Community/Junior College Accreditation, and a member of the NASM Board of Directors. He continues to serve NASM as a Visiting Evaluator. He is President of the Wyoming Music Teachers Association www.wyomingmta.org, a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music www.mtna.org, and former Vice President of High Education for the Wyoming Music Educators Association. He serves as an adjudicator for MTNA and the Montana State Music Festival. Dr. Unruh is a recipient of the Casper College Rosenthal Outstanding Educator award, the WMEA Music Teacher of the Year award, and is listed in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.

Irish pianist Peter Mack has been thrilling audiences in Washington state since moving to America as an "alien of exceptional merit and ability" in 1985. He has also performed throughout the United States and Europe, as well as in Australia and the former Soviet Union. He is the winner of the New Orleans, Young Keyboard Artists and Pacific International Piano Competitions. His prize in the Sherman-Clay competition included a Steinway grand piano.

Peter Mack is well known for his extensive repertoire, having performed twenty-five concertos with orchestras. A choral scholar at Trinity College Dublin, and a Fellow of Trinity College London, he has a doctorate in piano performance from the University of Washington. Dr. Mack is equally in demand as a performer, clinician, convention artist, and teacher. Pupils of Peter Mack are frequent winners of local, national, and international competitions. He is Professor of Piano Performance at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Peter Mack is a Steinway artist.

"Mack is one of those lucky ones, born with a completely balanced set of talents. He has perfect piano hands, his technique is all but infallible, he has boundless temperament, style and taste, and above all, he communicates directly.... In all capacities he is indefatigable...." --Los Angeles Times

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 (as featured guest artist at the 2008 Seattle International Piano Festival and Competition), and the historic rotunda of Steinway Hall in New York City. Other noteworthy performances have included an appearance as guest soloist in the Shostakovich First Piano Concerto with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, recitals with Trio Nuovo (joining violinist Anton Miller and cellist Karen Becker), two performances on the 2008 Illinois Chamber Music Festival Spring Concert Series, and a recital of French vocal music on the stage of the Lied Center for the Performing Arts with mezzo-soprano Anne Donnadieu.

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, and the Ameropa Chamber Music Festival in Prague, Czech Republic. He is currently associate professor of piano and co-chair of the piano area at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Mark Clinton is a Steinway artist.

Mary Tickner has a Master's Degree in Music from the University of Southern California where she also undertook post graduate doctoral studies. Upon completion of her Master's Degree, she was elected into the Pi Kappa Lambda National Honorary Society for Scholarship. As an undergraduate at the University of Evansville in Indiana, she was the first recipient of the Orr Memorial Scholarship awarded to the outstanding senior student in the graduating class. She has served on the faculty of several American universities, including San Jose State University and the State University of California at Long Beach, where she was Associate Professor. Mrs. Tickner served as a faculty member of the University of British Columbia's School of Music where she taught solo piano, group piano, and pedagogical studies. She now maintains a private studio where she teaches piano and classes in pedagogy from elementary level to advanced certification.

Mrs. Tickner is in demand as an adjudicator and workshop clinician and is a member of the Canadian Federation of Music Adjudicators Association. She has adjudicated festivals and conducted master classes and workshops on various pedagogical topics in Canada, U.S.A., Hong Kong, and India. In addition, she frequently evaluates music and pedagogical material for future publication by several major publishers.

Mrs. Tickner's students have performed at the World Piano Pedagogy Conference and many have become established in universities or as independent teachers. She served as 1st Vice-President of the BCRMTA Vancouver branch and coordinator for the "Pedagogy Forum." She is a member of the British Columbia Registered Music Teachers Association and the Music Teachers National Association.

John Weems has established himself as an outstanding private studio teacher in the nation. He established a private teaching studio in Victoria, TX. from 1976-1982 and in Houston from 1982-present. His students have won the top awards in numerous major state and national competitions, including: the first prize in the 1997 Music Teachers National Association Baldwin Piano Competition; local, district, and state competitions sponsored by the Texas Music Teachers Association; the Texas and South Central Division MTNA Baldwin and Yamaha Awards (thirteen national finalists); numerous state, national and international contests sponsored by colleges and universities; and the prestigious Josie Tomforde Concerto Contest sponsored by the Houston Symphony Orchestra. In addition, his students have been chosen by audition to perform in numerous recitals and master classes including those of : Claude Frank, Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, Constance Keene, John Perry, Bradford Gowen, André-Michel Schub, Lillian Kalir, Abbey Simon, Oxana Yablonskaya, Nelita True, John Browning, Ozan Marsh, Christopher Elton, Jerome Lowenthal, David Bar-Ilan, Anton Nel, Anton Kuerti, and others. His students have performed annually as concerto soloists with orchestras since 1983 in over two hundred performances, including the Interlochen Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Houston Civic Symphony, the Richardson Symphony, the University of Houston Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony, etc. Former students are now successful teachers and performers around the nation, including several under professional concert artist management.

In addition to teaching, Mr. Weems is very active as a clinician and adjudicator, and he has given numerous master classes and workshops around the state and nation. Mr. Weems has been a featured guest clinician at the state conventions of Texas, New York, Louisiana, Arkansas, New Mexico, Minnesota and South Carolina. He has been been a guest faculty member in numerous summer music programs including those of the Eastman School of Music, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Indiana University, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Southwest Texas State University, and the Moores School of Music of the University of Houston. He has presented lectures at the 1994 MTNA national convention in Washington, D.C. and the 1997, 1998, and 2003 World Piano Pedagogy Conferences.

John Weems is a charter member of Forum Music Teachers Association in Houston, and has served as President, Vice-President, Student Affiliate Performance Contest Chairman, and Concerto Contest Chairman for that association. Also, Mr. Weems has served on the state TMTA board of directors.

In 1991 the Texas State Music Teachers Association awarded John Weems the Pre-College Teaching Excellence Award.

Jack Winerock, a native of NYC, received his undergraduate and masters degree at the Juilliard School of Music and his doctorate from the University of Michigan. His teachers included Sascha Gorodnitzki, Gyorgy Sandor, and Leon Fleisher. Following his graduation from Michigan, he accepted an appointment at the University of Kansas.

In 1976, Winerock received Second Prize in the International Bach Competition. That year he made his orchestral debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In 1979 he made his New York debut at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. Since that time he has received yearly invitations to perform in Europe, Asia, and South America as well as in the United States. In 1986 he gave the first performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in the People’s Republic of China and in l988 performed for the first time in Japan. He has recorded the Sonatas of Alexander Reinagle for the Musical Heritage Society and the Concerto for Piano and Winds by Stravinski for Golden Crest Records.

Winerock has achieved national and international acclaim as a performer, teacher, and lecturer. His students have won prizes in national and international competitions, including Chopin Competition in Warsaw, the MTNA, and the Johanna Hodges. They hold important faculty positions both in the United States as well as in conservatories in Europe and Asia. In addition to his duties at the University of Kansas, he offers master classes annually in Asia, Europe, and South America. Following the adjudication in Wyoming, this summer he will teach at the St. Louis Symphony Innsbrook festival in June and at the International Institute for Young Musicians at KU in July.

Acclaimed throughout the South and Midwest, Jane Abbott-Kirk is in demand as soloist, collaborator, adjudicator, and clinician. She is professor of piano at Baylor University and has taught at the University of Kansas and Indiana University. In 1989 Jane Abbott-Kirk was awarded the Outstanding Tenured Teacher Award by Baylor University. In 2004 she was named the Collegiate Teacher of the Year by the Texas Music Teachers Association. She is also listed in Marquis Who's Who for 2004 and 2005. Many of her former students hold prestigious positions at universities, conservatories, and private teaching venues in this country and abroad. She is experienced in helping pianists prevent and recover from performance injuries and in building healthy technique that serves both virtuosity and interpretive sophistication.

Jane Abbott-Kirk, a native of Corpus Christi and San Antonio, Texas, began piano study with Robert Floyd at the age of three. At age eleven, she won the Corpus Christi Symphony Bach Contest. By seventeen, she had won contests sponsored by the National Federation of Music Clubs, Texas Music Teachers Association, and San Antonio Music Teachers Association. She also had performed with the San Antonio Symphony and Houston Symphony. While studying at Indiana University, she received enthusiastic reviews as the featured soloist on two mid-western orchestra tours, including the world premiere of Bernard Heiden's Triple Concerto.

A student of Sidney Foster and Menahem Pressler, she received a B.M., M.M., and the coveted Performer's Certificate from Indiana University. More recently, she has worked extensively with Edna Golandsky, former associate director of the Dorothy Taubman Institute and with Sheila Paige, director of the Piano Wellness Seminar. Her engagements over the span of several decades have included solo, collaborative, and orchestral performances throughout this country, Canada, and Austria. She is especially well known to music teachers' associations through her extensive presentations, workshops, and adjudications.

Jane Abbott-Kirk is a recording artist for the Musical Heritage Society and has received critical acclaim in Audio and Stereo Review. Her sensitive and inspired performances have provoked the highest accolades from the press.

Pianist Nan Shannon has been recognized for her versatility in both solo and collaborative performances. A dedicated performer of every aspect of the repertory, Ms. Shannon has especially distinguished herself as an interpreter of contemporary music. A past member of the Contemporary Music Forum in Washington, D.C., she played numerous works by living composers from around the world.

During recent seasons in Colorado Ms. Shannon gave a faculty solo recital at Regis University, and performed as a soloist with the Mercury Ensemble in Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C, K. 415. She joined members of the Front Range Chamber Players in Fort Collins for two concerts, and collaborated with the Colorado Chamber Players in two programs at the King Center in Denver. As a member of the new music ensemble Atomic Clock Music Events Ms. Shannon participated in a performance of Terry Riley’s In C at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, and a concert of new trios at the Rocky Mountain Center for Musical Arts. She also served for three seasons as a pianist for the Colorado Symphony Chorus.

Ms. Shannon is currently on the faculties of Regis University and Metropolitan State College in Denver, and has served as a coach in the Young Chamber Players program for members of the Denver Young Artists Orchestra. She has served as an adjudicator for a variety of competitions, including MTNA events, the Young Musicians Foundation in Denver, and the Fort Collins Symphony competition. She is a doctoral graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, where she studied with Ann Schein, and earned her masters degree in accompanying from the University of Southern California.