PIANO

LOIS ANDERSON
M.M. and B.M., Manhattan School of Music. Studied piano with Robert Helps, Marc Silverman and Sonia Vargas, and jazz studies with Barry Harris and Connie Crothers. Current faculty member and staff accompanist, Kean University. Former faculty member, New Jersey City University, Western Connecticut State University, The Kent School, and Diller-Quaille School of Music. Professional piano and chamber music performances include Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, WQXR – The Listening Room, NPR, Yale University and the Oberlin Conservatory; orchestral keyboard performances with Orchestra New England and New Jersey Symphony; and numerous contemporary music, jazz and improvisational performances and recordings. Ms. Anderson has worked with singers of the National Chorale and Lake George Opera Festival. She has given many works their premier performances and first recordings, and her original musical scores have been heard on ABC-TV and PBS.

KATIE COSCO
M.A., University of Memphis, jazz piano performance. B.S., Indiana University, music and audio technology. Studied classical piano with Daniel Fletcher, John Ogden, James Tocco and Han Boepple, jazz piano with Gene Rush and Dr. David N. Baker. Former faculty member, University of Memphis. Professional experience ranges from numerous solo piano performances to traveling keyboardist with the Four Tops. Performed with many well-known artists, including Smokey Robinson, Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Coasters, the Chiffons, Lesley Gore, Ben E. King, Peggy March, Jerry Van Dyke, Charo, Jack Sheldon, Billy Swan, Clint Holmes and Billy Eckstein. Performed as the keyboardist/leader for Tony and Tina's Wedding in NYC, as well as with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, the Mercedes Ellington "Tribute to Duke Ellington" show, and with orchestras under the direction of Bill Conti and Michael Berkowitz.

NELSON PADGETT
B.M. and M.M., Peabody Conservatory of Music. Studied with Leon Fleisher. Has taught privately for over twenty years. Currently teaching in New York City at Third Street Music School Settlement, America's oldest community music school. Performance credits range from solo appearances with the Houston and National Symphony Orchestras to world premieres of major works by Philip Glass. In addition to concerts across the United States, he has performed in Canada, Japan, South Korea, and throughout South America and Europe. His many competition successes include a Silver Medal from the William Kapell International Competition and a Beethoven Fellowship from the American Pianists Association. Recital partners have included violinists Nai-Yuan Hu, Pamela Frank, Elmar Oliveira, and cellist Daniel Gaisford. Has been heard at the Mostly Mozart, Caramoor, and Newport Music Festivals.

PAMELA IBETH VERA
M.A., Hunter College/CUNY, conducting and piano. B.M., Queens College/CUNY; Post Graduate Degree, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Professor of Music at Bergen and Passaic County Community Colleges; and faculty member of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Winner of the 1995 Herbert Rogers Performance Studies Award. Varied orchestral and choral conducting experience including Assistant Conductor of the Hunter College Symphony Orchestra, and Founder, Conductor and Music Director of the Maya Chamber Orchestra. Critically acclaimed pianist with numerous live, television and radio performances throughout New York and Ecuador, including performances at Lang Recital Hall, Weill Recital Hall, First Presbyterian Church of New York Choir, Queens College Concert Hall, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music Recital Hall, City University of New York and Teatro Principal Centro de Arte. .

JOHN WARD– PIANO, ORGAN, VOICE, COMPOSITION
Ph.D., M.M., Catholic University of America; B.M. Eastman School of Music. Additional studies at the Manhattan School of Music, George Mason University, Westminster Choir College. Piano studies with Eugene List, Arthur Balsam, William Masselos, Bela Nagy; organ with Gerald Wheeler; voice with Leslie Luxemburg, Rosemary Houghton, Ann Mills, Marcia Gronewold-Sly. Music Director, First Presbyterian Church of Hackensack; faculty member in piano and voice, Main Street Music Studio; Singer, The Leon Berger Chorale. Former faculty, Governor's Magnet School for the Arts (VA) and Clarion University of Pennsylvania. Private teacher of piano, voice, music theory, musicianship, and composition. A freelance performer and composer, John has been involved in 250 concert performances as pianist, conductor, organist, singer, or promoter, and in over 100 theatrical productions from children's theater to professional companies, as music director, composer or actor. Fellow of the Royal Schools of Music - Piano, Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music – Organ and Singing, and Fellow of the American Guild of Organists.