On Monday, Feb. 22, at 4:30 p.m., Nicholas Phillips, D.M.A, associate professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, follows up his Sunday, Feb. 21, recital at Mercyhurst with a masterclass for piano majors in the D’Angelo Department of Music. He will work with each student individually.
This program is open to the public. The opportunity is reserved for piano majors first but some secondary students and minors can also sign up for the Masterclass.
“The Masterclass benefits the public by allowing them to observe good teaching. It is like attending a performance but it is also an opportunity to see different viewpoints of teaching. As a pianist it is helpful to pick up on things that I never thought about or the teacher on stage might be talking about a concept that maybe I had focused on a lot on in the past that I may have not lately.
For the public it is just an education about how music can be interpreted and how good teaching should be,” stated Nathan Hess, D.M.A., chair of the Mary D’Angelo Department of Music and assistant professor of piano.
Just because only music majors and minors can technically receive the training, everyone should consider attending the class for a new experience because the instruction is in a public setting. “The teacher on stage is not going to call on someone for an opinion but sometimes they like to involve the audience to get some questions going and some audience interaction because sometimes it becomes boring if it is strictly observational,” Hess said.
The audience will be only observing Phillips working with the piano majors unless he involves them by asking for questions or opinions about what is going on onstage.
“He has done really well and it is great to have him on our campus and work with our students,” Hess said.