Piano Camp
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Grades 9-12
DATES
TBD
OBJECTIVE
Designed for talented young piano students, the UTRGV Summer Piano Camp is a week of intensive study combined with numerous musical opportunities offered at the School of Music on the Brownsville campus. It is open to students grades 9th through 12th. Participants will take place in daily masterclasses, ensemble sessions as well as theory and sight-reading classes taught by the UTRGV piano faculty, members of the camp staff, and guest artists, allowing each student to receive personalized attention throughout the week.
SCHEDULE
HOUSING AND MEALS
Overnight room accommodations will not be available, all camp participants must return home by the end of the day each day of camp. All meals/snacks listed in the schedule are included in the tuition and will be served on UTRGV campus. On occasion, students will participate in extra meals such as evening pizza parties, ice cream or cookouts. Arrival and departure of students will take place only during specific posted times. UTRGV will not host students outside scheduled camp dates and posted times.
COST
Tuition for the Piano Camp is $200 which includes participation in lessons, classes, masterclasses, lunch/snack, social activities, a t-shirt and a camp decal. Tuition can be paid by check/money order made out to UTRGV School of Music or online by clicking here.
Applicants must audition with two contrasting pieces performed from memory. Students are encouraged to audition by submitting a video link ahead of time (YouTube or other online video streaming format) to Dr. Kenneth Saxon’s email at kenneth.saxon@utrgv.edu no later than June 6, 2022.
NOTE: The COVID-19 situation may evolve or change. We will make every effort to create an inspirational experience for all participants. However, circumstances and guidelines may change and the Music Camp will adjust as needed. Alternative plans and schedules may be necessary due to situations beyond our control. Refunds will be offered if the event needs to be cancelled.
FACULTY
Pianist Dr. Kenneth Saxon has performed as a soloist and collaborative pianist on three continents, including appearances at the Esplanade in Singapore and performances at the IBLA Grand Prize in Ibla, Sicily where he was awarded special recognition as an Outstanding Performer. Known for his wide-ranging repertoire, he has given numerous premieres while also exploring in depth the standard repertoire from Bach to Bartok. His performances are characterized by the passionate commitment of his playing, the clarity of his musical ideas, and his dedication to a beautiful sound.
In 2005, Saxon released his first solo recording, 13 Preludes, Op. 32 by Sergei Rachmaninoff (Plum 052). Saxon has given complete performances of the Op. 32 Preludes on numerous occasions in the United States, Mexico, and Italy. Listeners have noted the pianist's dedication to Rachmaninoff's score and his success in bringing the music to life as the composer intended it.
He has recorded Kawai Shiu’s “clear shade” for the CD, music of kawai shiu (SSR0004) and Shiu’s “Winter Tide” for the CD, eXchange:China (CRI805). During the spring of 2005, he premiered Shiu’s piano piece la negacion de simbolos which was written for him. In the spring of 2012, Saxon’s contemporary music ensemble, Sin Fronteras performed the music of Kawai Shiu during a special visiting composer event at the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College.
As a collaborative pianist Saxon has performed hundreds of concerts. Notable collaborators include performers Alexa Still, Stafford and Rebecca Turner, Jonathan Noffsinger, Andrea Dawson, composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle, and conductors Frederick Fennel and Louis Lane. He holds a DMA in piano performance from the University of Alabama where he was awarded a Graduate Council Fellowship. His teachers include Amanda Penick, Helen Ramsaur, Elizabeth Buday, Anthony di Bonaventura and Bela Nagy.
Polish-born pianist Dr. Igor Lipinski made his orchestra debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra on NPR’s Performance Today and performed with Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, Butler County Symphony Orchestra, Woodstock Mozart Festival Orchestra, Lakes Area Music Festival Orchestra, and Paderewski Symphony Orchestra at Chicago’s Symphony Center. He maintains an active concert career in the U.S. including a live broadcast recital at Chicago’s premiere classical music station 98.7 WFMT and “33 Variations,” an award-winning theater play based on Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.
At age 12, Lipinski won the Grand Prix and the First Prize at the Paderewski Competition for Young Pianists in Tuchów, Poland. At 17, he played the role of a pianist in Kazimierz Braun’s theatre play "Paderewski's Children" at the University at Buffalo. A year later, he graduated from the Paderewski Music High School in Tarnów, Poland where he studied piano with Jaroslaw Iwaneczko.
Lipinski earned his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Musical Arts and Master of Music in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester where he studied piano under the tutelage of Douglas Humpherys. As a teaching assistant of Vincent Lenti and Tony Caramia, he received Eastman’s Teaching Assistant Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Lipinski continued his graduate studies at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music earning his Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance under the tutelage of Alan Chow. Upon graduation from Northwestern, Lipinski joined the piano faculty at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville as the Lecturer of Piano where he received the KMTA Teacher of the Year award. In Fall 2017, Lipinski joined the piano faculty at the University of Oklahoma as the Assistant Professor of Piano.
Lipinski’s students have won multiple awards including the University of Oklahoma Concerto Competition and the Oklahoma MTNA Young Artist Piano Competition. Lipinski has been an adjudicator for many national piano competitions including Texas Music Teachers Association State Conference in Houston and the Young Artist Piano Competition Finals of the 2020 MTNA National Conference in Chicago where he was also selected to present a conference session entitled “Reimagining The Piano Recital: Creative Ideas To Engage Your Audience.”
Lipinski’s research interests focus on the history of recital programming featured in his DMA dissertation “From Liszt to Victor Borge: A Legacy of Unique Piano Performances.” Recognized for his own creative programming, Lipinski unified two of his lifetime passions, classical music and magic, in a unique recital program “Piano Illusions.” Originally developed for his honors senior thesis at Eastman, Lipinski collaborated on the program with Teller of Las Vegas duo Penn & Teller and won the WQXR Classical Comedy Contest at Caroline’s on Broadway. In light of his success in New York, Lipinski presented “Piano Illusions” at renowned concert series and festivals including Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation in Salt Lake City and Musica del Cuore Concert Series in Hong Kong.
Highlights of recent concert seasons include recitals at the San Francisco International Piano Festival, College of Charleston International Piano Series in Charleston, South Carolina, The Evelyn Miller Young Pianists Series in Knoxville, Tennessee, and WNYC’s Greene Space in New York City.
After the halt of his concert tour caused by COVID-19 in 2020, he turned to recording, started his own record label Vanishing Records, and released his first album Alchemy available for streaming on Spotify and Apple Music. His most recent releases feature an EP of Ravel’s piano music and Masterpieces, a collection of piano music inspired by works of art. Upcoming 2021 releases feature an album of Liszt’s song transcriptions, an EP of piano music by Grażyna Bacewicz, and two books of Janácek’s On an Overgrown Path.