Our amazing piano faculty at BYU:

Dr. Robin Hancock

biography

Robin Hancock pursues many avenues in the world of music: performance, teaching, accompanying, and adjudicating. He has appeared in such diverse venues as the 1974 Spokane World’s Fair and the National Performing Arts Center in the Philippines. He was a 1988 competitor in the International Gina Bachauer Competition. He is a member of the internationally renowned American Piano Quartet. He is a sought-after accompanist and arranger working with Michael Ballam, Stanford Olson, James Arrington, David Osmond, Jenny Oaks Baker, Mack Wilberg, Ray Smith, and Daron Bradford. He has appeared with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and is a Pearl Award nominee with the American Piano Quartet. He appears frequently on BYU and KBYU Television and Radio networks, and has released discs on the BYU-Tantara label. He was rehearsal pianist for Leonard Slatkin with the American Symphony Orchestra and Boston University Chorus performance of A Sea Symphony in Carnegie Hall. He played for Metropolitan Opera Mezzo-Soprano Dolora Zajick, in her Utah appearances.

Recent appearances have been: Temple Hill Symphony in California; Bachauer International Piano Festival; the Presidio in San Francisco; West Coast Clarinet Congress; North American Saxophone Association; University of the Americas in Puebla Mexico; University of Goianas in Brazil; Frankfurt Hochschule for Music; Japan Piano Teachers Association; Tuesday Musicale in Detroit; Southern Utah University; Utah Valley State College; Cathedral of the Madeleine; Orchestra on Temple Square; Tulane University, and Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

Formerly on the faculty at University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Dr. Hancock was organist for the Christian Science Church, and the 1^st Presbyterian Church. He joined BYU’s School of Music in 1994 where he has been head of piano accompanying programs, and coordinates non-major piano study.

education

• D.M.A.
  • Piano Performance, Boston University
  • Director’s Scholar
• M.M.
  • Piano Pedagogy, BYU,
  • Boshard Scholar
• B.A
  • Piano Performance, Central Washington University,
  • Presser Scholar

Dr. Jeffrey Shumway

biography

Dr. Jeffrey Shumway, pianist, is a member of the music faculty at Brigham Young University, serving as Professor of Piano and as Head of Keyboard Studies. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1976 from Brigham Young University, gaining Most Outstanding Pianist and Most Outstanding Musician honors. Further studies included the Master of Music degree at Juilliard School of Music, where he studied with Irwin Freundlich. He received the Doctor of Music degree with High Honors from Indiana University in 1981. Dr. Shumway was the second prize winner of the 1977 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition.

Since joining the piano faculty at Brigham Young University in 1985 Dr. Shumway has performed extensively solo and chamber music. In 1990, he completed a series of ten recitals featuring the complete thirty-two sonatas of Beethoven, for which he received high acclaim and was honored with the inaugural Gina Bachauer Medal of Artistic Distinction. He has also twice received the Creative Excellence Award from the College of Fine Arts and Communications at Brigham Young University. Concerto performances include works by Mendelssohn, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Brahms, Gershwin, Cramer, and Ravel, the latter as part of another series in 1987 devoted to the complete solo and ensemble piano music of Ravel. He is a member of the internationally renowned American Piano Quartet with whom he has performed and recorded throughout Europe, Canada, the Far East, and the United States. In addition to involvement with the American Piano Quartet Dr. Shumway has performed regularly since 1983 with his duo-piano partner, Del Parkinson of Boise State University, with whom he recorded a compact disc, Celebrating Gershwin, in 1998. Dr. Shumway has arranged several pieces for five pianos, published by Piano Ensemble International.

education

D.M.A., Piano, Indiana University, 1982.
M.M., Piano, The Juilliard School, 1977.
B.M., Piano, Brigham Young University, 1976.

Dr. Irene Peery-Fox

biography

Irene Peery-Fox received her doctoral degree from the Peabody conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, where she studied with Leon Fleisher. Before her doctoral work, she earned bachelor of music and master of science degrees from Juilliard, studying with Irwin Freudlich, Jeaneanne Dowis, and Ilona Kabos. She has also earned an ARCT degree from the Royal conservatory in Toronto and a performing arts degree from the University of Alberta, Edmonton.

Irene has won numerous piano contests; twice she won the International CBC Talent Festival Contest. She also won the Alaska Music Trails Concert Tour. She has received four Ford Foundation Grants, four Canada Council grants, an INCO grant, and five full-time Juilliard scholarships for piano study. Her many concerto appearances include performances with orchestras in Montreal, Toronto, Salt Lake City, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Victoria, Calgary, Provo, and Lethbridge. She has performed solo recitals in Canada, the United States (including Carnegie), and Europe, and chamber recitals at Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She has also performed on radio and television on the NBC,CBC, and BBC networks.

Irene was formerly a faculty member at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, Preparatory Division. Currently, she serves on the Brigham Young University piano faculty. Her students have been frequent prize winners in international, national, state, and local competitions. She is listed in the Canadian Dictionary of Music and Musicians and in the Outstanding Young Women of America.

education

D.M.A., Piano Performance, Peabody Conservatory of the John Hopkins University, 1987.
M.S., Music, The Juilliard School, 1972.
B.M., The Juilliard School, 1969.
Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto degree, Royal Conservatory, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1965
Associate in Music-Pianoforte Performance degree, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 1965

Dr. Scott Holden

biography

Scott Holden enjoys an active career as soloist, chamber musician and teacher. He is currently the department chair of piano and organ studies at BYU. Dr. Holden has performed in thirty different American states, and nine European countries as well as Canada and Mexico. As first prize winner of the 1996 Leschetizky New York Debut Competition, he made his Carnegie Recital Hall concert debut which received high critical praise. He has also performed at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center. Performances have been aired on the CBC, NPR, NBC, as well as numerous radio and television appearances on KBYU. Dr. Holden is a member of the internationally renowned American Piano Quartet and is a member of the piano faculty at Brigham Young University.

education

D.M.A., Manhattan School of Music, 2002.

Fulbright Scholar, Performance Certificate, The Liszt Academy, Budapest, Hungary, 1997.

M.M., Piano Performance, The Juilliard School, 1995.

B.M., Piano Performance, University of Michigan, 1992.

Dr. Richard Anderson

biography

Dr. Richard Anderson was raised in Arizona where he received his degree in Music Education from Arizona State University. From there he obtained his masters degree in piano performance at Northwestern University, and his doctorate in performance, pedagogy and research from the University of Colorado. He studied with Dr. Donald Isaak at ASU, Gui Mombearts at Northwestern, and Dr. Keith Wallingford and Dr. Paul Parmelee at the University of Colorado. He also studied with Reginald Stewart, former head of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California.

Dr. Anderson is in his 37th year at the School of Music at BYU. As a member of the piano performance faculty, he teaches private lessons to piano performance majors, courses related to piano pedagogy, and supervises the group piano program. He also teaches music theory and composition.

Dr. Anderson has published three textbooks related to group piano, numerous children's piano pieces, “Excursions,” a suite for marimba and piano, and articles related to group piano and piano performance and pedagogy. He has done publisher presentations at the national MTNA conference and has done pedagogy workshops throughout the Midwest and western states.

Along with his assignments in music at BYU, he also taught religion for 15 years and has published or presented articles related to the LDS religion. This past year, his book "Your Divine Purpose," was published by Covenant Communications.

He and his wife Susan are both converts to the LDS church. Dr. Anderson served a mission to the Cumorah Mission which at the time included all of up-state New York. He has served in three bishoprics, once as a bishop, several stints on the Stake High Council, as a branch president at the MTC, and various other ward callings. He and Susan are the parents of five children and nine grandchildren with two more on the way. Besides music, he is an avid sports follower (since he's too old to compete), loves golf even though golf hates him, and loves to read books related to church history and doctrine, World War II, biographies, good mysteries, and is a big fan of Louis L’Amour.