UGA Piano Symposium


2025 UGA Piano Symposium

Combining Tradition and Innovation: Piano Teaching Today
January 31, 2025 

Symposium Headliner: Robert McDonald (The Juilliard School, Curtis Institute)

Featured Presenter in Pedagogy: Omar Roy (University of South Carolina)

Sessions will include teaching demonstrations with Prof. Robert McDonald featuring pre-college and college students and different musical genres as well as a Q&A with Prof. McDonald. Featured presenter in pedagogy, Dr. Omar Roy will lecture about the use of AI in piano teaching and about pedagogical principles in repertoire selection. UGA faculty and Steinway & Sons representatives will demonstrate UGA’s new Steinway Spirio piano.
 
Robert McDonald will give a free piano recital the evening before the Symposium, on January 30, at 7:30pm at the UGA Performing Arts Center.
 
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Coming soon.

SYMPOSIUM SESSIONS (*subject to change)

Coming soon.

 

INFORMATION FOR ATTENDEES
 REGISTRATION

Coming soon.

PARKING

PARKING
The Hugh Hodgson School of Music is located at 250 River Road, Athens, GA, 30602, and Edge Hall entrance is opposite the Performing Arts Center (third floor button in the elevator). Friday evening and all-day Saturday parking is free in Lot E11, closest to the School of Music. Please visit UGA Parking Services website to learn more and see other available lots: https://tps.uga.edu/parking/visitors/ 

DINING
Lunch will be available for purchase (self-pay at entrance) at the Joe Frank Harris Commons cafeteria, located a 5-minute walk from the School of Music. Athens is also known for its award-winning restaurants, and most offer delivery: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g29209-Athens_Georgia.html.

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES
Symposium Headliner: Robert McDonald

Pianist Robert McDonald has toured extensively as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America. He has performed with major orchestras in the U.S. and was a recital partner with violinist Isaac Stern for many years. He has participated in the Marlboro, Casals, and Lucerne festivals, performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and for broadcasts over BBC Television. He has also appeared with the Takács, Vermeer, Juilliard, Brentano, Borromeo, American, Shanghai, and St. Lawrence string quartets as well as with Musicians from Marlboro. McDonald’s prizes include the gold medal at the Busoni International Piano Competition, the top prize at the William Kapell International Competition, and the Deutsche Schallplatten Critics Award. His teachers include Theodore Rehl, Seymour Lipkin, Rudolf Serkin, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Beveridge Webster, and Gary Graffman. He holds degrees from Lawrence University, the Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard, and the Manhattan School of Music. McDonald has taught at the Curtis Institute, where he holds the Penelope P. Watkins Chair in piano studies, since 2007. During the summer, he is the artistic director of New Mexico’s Taos School of Music and Chamber Music Festival.

Omar Roy
Featured Presenter in Pedagogy: Omar Roy

Omar Roy currently serves as Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy in the School of Music at the University of South Carolina. He teaches Piano, Piano Pedagogy, and also coordinates the Group Piano Program. A strong supporter of independent music teachers, Dr. Roy is in demand as a clinician. He frequently presents workshops and guest lectures to music teacher organizations and universities, and is a regular adjudicator for festivals and competitions. His involvement with music teachers organizations has led to leadership positions and presentations at the state and national level, including the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy. Dr. Roy is also part of the administrative team for The Art of Piano Pedagogy – a growing Facebook group that acts as a resource and forum of discussion that reaches nearly 23,000 teachers located throughout the world – and its companion site, Sustain. While Dr. Roy is dedicated to teaching at both the college and pre-college levels, he also remains a committed and passionate performer, presenting both traditional and lecture performances. Dr. Roy earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma where he studied Piano with Jeongwon Ham and Edward Gates, and Pedagogy with Jane Magrath and Barbara Fast. His research interests include practice efficiency, teaching strategies for students with special needs, sequenced repertoire assignment, and pedagogical applications of musical semiotics. Dr. Roy’s other teachers include Jerry Wong, Shirley Yoo, and Nathan Hess. Previous faculty appointments include the University of Alabama and Oklahoma City University.

 UGA Piano Faculty

The PIANO AREA of the UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music features internationally
recognized faculty, attracting talented young musicians from the United States and abroad.
Piano students at the HHSOM enjoy opportunities for solo performances, annual concerto
competitions, chamber ensembles, orchestras, bands, and choirs. Students gain valuable
interactive performance and teaching experience by participating in educational and
community outreach programs. The HHSOM is the first all-Steinway school in Georgia and has
two piano technicians on staff—Scott Higgins (Lead Piano Technician) and Tony Graves.
 

Grace Huang is Lecturer in Piano and Piano Pedagogy and Class Piano Coordinator at the
Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Praised for her “lovely and vivacious” playing (Fort Worth
Star-Telegram), she has performed throughout the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Huang has taught on
several pre-college and college faculties, including the Cleveland Institute of Music and Millikin
University. In demand as a teacher, her students have received honors and acceptances to
music programs across the country. She is an active adjudicator and presenter at local, state
and national levels, and recently initiated the “Play On, Athens!” public piano project.


Emely Phelps joined the UGA faculty this fall, having previously served as Associate Professor
of Instruction at Ohio University. Dr. Phelps holds degrees from Juilliard, NEC, and Stony Brook
University, was a founding member of Trio Cleonice, and has been on the faculty of the Yellow
Barn Young Artists Program and the T-Town, Icicle Creek, and Anchorage Chamber Music
Festivals. She appears on the albums Unbounded and Discovering her Voice, both featuring
duos by female composers, and looks forward this season to performances at MahlerFest,
University of Colorado Boulder, Pacific Lutheran University, and the world premiere of a new
commission from Tyson Gholston Davis.

Greg Satterthwaite is Assistant Professor of Jazz Piano and African American Studies at the
University of Georgia. Prior to joining the faculty at UGA he was an Assistant Professor of Music
at Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL. He has a DMA from the University of North Texas in
Jazz Piano Performance, a Master of Arts in Commercial Music from Florida Atlantic University,
and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Miami. Dr. Satterthwaite has performed at
festivals including the Swan City Piano Festival, Denton Arts and Jazz Festival, and SunFest. He
has recently recorded and performed with artists including jazz bassist, Rodney Whitaker and
drummer, Terreon Gully.


Before joining the UGA faculty, Liza Stepanova taught at Smith College and The Juilliard
School. She holds a DMA from Juilliard and has also studied in Berlin, Germany. In 2025-2026,
she performs and teaches at Brevard, Bowdoin, Songfest, and the UNCSA Summer Piano
Intensive, as a guest artist at CU Boulder, James Madison, and Vanderbilt universities, and
continues to tour with the Lysander Piano Trio including at Rockefeller Concerts in New York
City and Music at Kohl Mansion in San Francisco. Stepanova’s second solo CD "E Pluribus
Unum" (2020) earned her the distinction of "New Artist of the Month" from Musical America
Worldwide and has been praised in International Piano, Piano Magazine, BBC Music Magazine,
and Gramophone. Her students have been successful at international festivals, in prestigious
graduate programs, and in competitions, including a prize at MTNA national finals this year.
 

James Weidman has had a decades-long international career as a jazz pianist/keyboardist
based in New York City. His diverse affiliations include Abbey Lincoln, Cassandra Wilson, Steve
Coleman and Five Elements and the Grammy Nominated Joe Lovano Us Five. His latest
recording on Inner Circle Music “Spiritual Impressions” featuring Ruth Naomi Floyd was
selected by Cadence Magazine as one of the top ten albums of 2018. James graduated from
Youngstown State University with a BM in Piano and Music Education. He joined the UGA
faculty in 2021. He previously taught at William Paterson University and SUNY Purchase.
 

Alan Woo joined the UGA piano faculty in 2022, having previously taught at Elizabeth City
State University and the Peabody Institute. Woo is a graduate of The Juilliard School and
Peabody Conservatory, where he completed degrees in piano performance under Robert
McDonald and Yong Hi Moon. He made his Lincoln Center debut with the Juilliard Orchestra
under Yannick Nézet-Séguin and has since made concerto appearances with the Houston and
Fort Worth Symphonies. Woo has performed solo recitals throughout the United States,
Europe and Asia, and in series such as the Lake George Music Festival, Brooklyn Chamber
Music Society and La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest as chamber musician.