abstract: The purpose of this document is to create a template for a master’s degree in Collaborative Piano using data collected from an online survey and from publicly available information on institutional websites. The history and development of the graduate collaborative piano degree in the United States is examined to provide the background to this research. In addition to the degree template, other aspects useful for the creation of such a degree are discussed, including proposed required and optional courses, financial considerations, community outreach opportunities, and balancing off-campus professional engagements with on-campus academic duties. A list of all institutions currently offering collaborative piano degrees at the graduate level is included in the appendix. The degree template conforms to the requirements of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) in order to allow the greatest number of institutions the ability to embrace the curriculum. Designed to be flexible within the overall requirements of the degree, the proposed curriculum favors a balanced approach between instrumental and vocal collaboration, with a combination of traditional courses, project-based courses, and customizable elective courses designed to develop important competencies in collaborative piano. Both solo and collaborative applied lessons would be required, with three coached collaborative recitals and one uncoached collaborative recital required to fulfill the degree requirements. The project-oriented Collaborative Piano Seminar course has the flexibility to allow team teaching or community partnerships and requires an off-campus class performance once per academic year. The goal of this template is to provide a pedagogically solid foundation for a master’s degree in collaborative piano, with the flexibility to add a variety of elective courses best suited to the needs and talents of the students, faculty, and institution. The synthesis of classical and popular styles within the curriculum is designed to give the collaborative pianist diverse musical competencies in order to succeed and thrive as a professional musician in the 21st century, whether the student continues with self-education after the master’s degree, pursues further study at the doctoral level, or enters the professional world. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Performance 2020

abstract: The work of collaborative pianists can vary widely, requiring a large spectrum of musical and foreign language skills. In addition, many non-musical skills are required of collaborative pianists in order to adapt to various types of work, the roles they assume, and the needs of the people they encounter professionally. Collaborative pianists usually develop good habits for survival on the job, but rarely receive preliminary training in capacities such as facilitation, maintaining objectivity in collaboration, asking good questions, and giving feedback effectively. The emerging field of teaching artistry offers a wealth of information for the development of these non-musical skills in collaborative pianists. The skills necessary for teaching artistry and collaborative piano frequently overlap, which is instructive for collaborative pianists as they prepare for their various musical and leadership roles. This paper explores shared practices between these disciplines, how they can enhance the activities of a collaborative pianist, and also help them develop skills as arts advocates. Advocating techniques for new music and audience engagement are addressed, as well as programming, content development and building teams around projects. The idea of the collaborative pianist becoming a teaching artist is also explored, as the diverse activities and experiences of a collaborative pianist can serve as valuable resources. All of these approaches to non-musical skills focus on building strong processes, leading to creative activities that are process-driven rather than product-driven. This study seeks to enrich activities of collaborative pianists through the application of teaching artist capacities and pave pathways for new, more effective professional collaborations. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2020

As opportunities to perform as a soloist diminish, more pianists consider chamber and orchestral playing as an alternative solution. By so doing, ample performance opportunities are introduced. Although most university music programs offer ensemble courses for pianists and have begun to offer degrees with an emphasis in accompaniment, their curriculum lacks instructions specifically designed to train and prepare pianists for playing in large ensembles, especially wind bands. This dissertation addresses the difficulties, which one might encounter in large ensemble collaboration, and recommends useful suggestions for acquiring functional skills to solve these difficulties. Pianists can attain professional status by acquiring the functional skills presented in each chapter. The goal of this study is to provide pedagogical support and direction for novice pianists in the larger ensemble collaboration.

In the world of chamber music, programmatic suites are more rarely composed and consequently more rarely presented in recital than other musical forms. Perhaps partially for this reason, George Enescu's Impressions d'enfance for violin and piano, his last chamber piece written in the tumultuous year of 1940, has been overlooked for a long time; even the composer himself did not make a recording of this seldom performed piece. This dissertation examines Impressions d'enface in order to explore the relationship between the underlying Romanian folk rhythmic and melodic patterns, to provide an analysis, as well as to serve as a performance guide to assist performers in surmounting the technical challenges and thus create a more effective ensemble. I hope this dissertation will encourage more duos to experiencing the joy of George Enescu's richly fulfilling Impressions d'enfance for themselves.

Bohuslav Martinů's "Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra" is one of the most frequently played pieces in the oboe repertoire. For this reason, it is often played with the piano reduction instead of the orchestra in oboe recitals. However, the existing piano reductions include many errors and discrepancies from the orchestral score, misrepresent the orchestration, sometimes fail to make the oboe entries clear, and tend to be unplayable for pianists. Moreover, the scores were published after the composer's death without him supervising the final editing. I have prepared a new, playable piano reduction to represent the orchestration more faithfully and help pianists work with their soloists more easily. Based on the work of Martin Katz, a prominent collaborative-pianist, I establish four principles for creating a new piano reduction. After scrutiny of the deficiencies of existing piano reductions, I suggest solutions for making the passages in question practical and bringing out the leading voices clearly so that the soloist can join in as easily as playing with an orchestra. To aid in reflecting the orchestral texture that Martinů created, I include abbreviated instrument names in many passages to help pianists to understand how to create balance. I have changed some passages completely to make the sound closer to the orchestral texture. All changes and suggestions are based on the orchestral score and its layout. This simplified and practical piano reduction should help pianists have more enjoyable and more successful collaborations with their soloists.