Keyboard Area
We would like to welcome you to the Keyboard Area of the University of Alberta's Department of Music. The Keyboard area has trained not only distinguished pianists who have won national and international competitions, but has provided a strong musical foundation for musicians who have gone into other music fields such as instrumental conducting, choral conducting, musicology and theory. Our alumni include a vast range of pianists who teach in universities and colleges in Canada and abroad, and many who perform as soloists, chamber musicians and collaborative pianists. Our undergraduates have continued their studies at leading institutions, and many of our graduate students have been honored with top national research awards, including the prestigious Vanier Scholarship.
Our objective is to provide students with essential technical and musical tools to support, encourage and develop a broad range of musical experiences. Students will benefit from the vast artistic and pedagogical experiences of our nationally and internationally recognized keyboard faculty. At the undergraduate level, students have the opportunity to pursue a choice of routes, including a general degree or a concentration in performance. Our master's degree gives the option of concentrating on performance or pedagogy, and our innovative DMus degree includes training in recording and editing of a compact disc as part of the capping experience.
Each year students benefit from master classes with such masters as Angela Cheng, Jamie Parker, Janina Fialkowska, Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt, Gilbert Kalish and Claude Frank (pianists); Paul Jacobs, David Higgs, David Titterington, and Craig Humber (organists); and Gilbert Martinez (harpsichord).
Our main performance space, Convocation Hall, has two nine-foot Steinway concert grand pianos, a three manual Casavant mechanical action organ (1978), a five-stop Krapf/Louder continuo organ (2011), harpsichord and fortepiano. Opportunities are available to perform in the Winspear Centre for Music, including on the Davis Concert Organ.
For a full list of faculty and instructors in the Keyboard Area, please visit the Faculty by Area page.
Although no ensemble is directly associated with the Piano Area, piano majors participate in the full range of ensembles offered by the Department of Music.