Piano Professor Ingrid Clarfield Receives National Award
Ingrid Clarfield, professor of piano at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, was recently named an MTNA Foundation Fellow by the Music Teachers National Association National Conference (MTNA) at its national conference in Austin, Texas. Clarfield is the first New Jersey recipient of the prestigious award, which recognizes “deserving individuals who have made significant contributions to the music world and the music teaching profession.”
In addition to receiving this honor, Professor Clarfield was a featured presenter at the conference, presenting a master class for intermediate level students. She was also joined by Westminster colleague Lillian Livingston in leading the session Preparing for College Auditions at the conference’s Collegiate Expo. Her newest book, Burgmüller, Czerny and Hanon, Book 3, was released by Alfred Publishing Company and presented for the first time at the conference.
Ingrid Clarfield is nationally recognized as a teacher, clinician, pianist, and author. She is Coordinator of the Piano Department at Westminster Choir College of Rider University. For 23 years she has also directed Westminster Choir College's Piano Week for High School Students and is a frequent guest clinician at Calgary Arts Summer School Piano Camp in Alberta, Canada.
Clarfield has given lecture-recitals, workshops and master classes in more than 100 cities across North America, including presentations at the Music Teachers National Association’s state and national conferences. She has presented numerous master classes and pedagogy sessions at the National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy, the TCU/Van Cliburn Institute, the National Piano Teachers Institute, the Music Teachers Association of California and the World Piano Pedagogy Conference, where she serves on the board of directors.
Clarfield has written many collections for Alfred Publishing Company: Keys To Stylistic Mastery, Books 1-3, co-authored with Dennis Alexander, provide students with tools to create performances that are stylistically accurate. Key pedagogical concepts for efficient learning and artistic performance are outlined in her series From Mystery to Mastery. Her Artistic Preparation and Performance Series provides creative and sequential practice and performance tips for Debussy’s Golliwog’s Cakewalk, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, and Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 9, No. 2. A sequential approach to achieving a solid technique with musicality is presented in her series, Burgmüller, Czerny and Hanon: Piano Studies Selected for Technique and Musicality, Books 1-3.
Ingrid Clarfield holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College where she studied with John Perry. She also holds a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music. Since 1976, she has performed regularly in two-piano recitals with Lillian Livingston.
In addition to serving on Westminster’s faculty, she maintains an independent studio in Princeton, N. J. Her students have performed concertos with several orchestras and have won top honors in state, national, and international competitions sponsored by the Music Teachers National Association, International Young Artist Piano Competition, the Steinway Society, and numerous others. They have performed in such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Steinway Hall, and several concert halls in Beijing.
