Susan Smetana

My wonderful mom, Susie, passed away on August 29, 2021 after a year-long battle with mantle cell lymphoma.  Mom always supported my education and modeled great strength, spirit, and optimism even in the worst of times.  I learned how music notation works while singing beside her in church as a young child; I will do what I can to keep the music going in her absence.   You can read more about my mom here.

Marvin R. Blickenstaff

More than anyone else, my Goshen College piano professor Marvin Blickenstaff has shaped who I am as a teacher.  His influence has extended far beyond my undergraduate years as we have stayed close and I take advantage of every chance I have to hear him speak.  When he sees me at a conference, he greets me with a big bear hug and then usually apologizes for the lecture, saying, "You've heard it all before."  I tell him I need the review.  The truth is, there is always something new for me in one of Marvin's lectures, no matter how many times I've heard him speak on the topic, because Marvin is always looking for ways to improve, to grow, to help students play more musically with greater technical fluency, and to help teachers ignite passion for music in their students.

​I will always remember Marvin, in his suit and tie, crawling around on the floor with his beginning group of piano students.  He is as at home with a room full of six year olds as he is with the most advanced student.  From his example, I learned that all music can be played with artistry and flair - from the very easiest pieces up to concert-level repertoire.

​Here are a few of my favorite Marvin quotes, which have had a huge impact on my teaching:
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• "Music is the expression of the entire human experience through organized sound."
• "A good pianist does not play two notes in a row that are exactly alike."
• "The body remembers everything we feed to it.  That's why it is so important to practice accurately.  The body doesn't differentiate between right and wrong; it only remembers."
• "It is of life-saving importance that we nurture ourselves through making music."
• ​"Effective, artistic performances have dynamics, balance, and breath.  If we do not teach those elements as basic to music-making, we fail to educate our students artistically."
• ​"One of the things we learn from singing is that breath is a natural part of music-making."
• ​"Accuracy is not artistry."
• "Frances Clark once said, 'There is music in every child.'  I say, there is artistry in every child."

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Frances Clark & Louise Goss

Frances Clark and Louise Goss were pioneers in the field of piano pedagogy, and I was fortunate to study with them at The New School for Music Study as part of my graduate studies at Westminster Choir College.   Their wisdom is encapsulated in the quotes below:

• "Teach the student first, the music second, and the piano third."
• "Telling isn't teaching."
• ​"Meet the student where they are, not where you are, and not where you want them to be, but where they really are."
• ​"There is music in every child.  The teacher's job is to find it and nurture it."
• "My goal as a teacher is to create a climate in which my students experience continual musical, intellectual, and personal growth and to become increasingly dispensable to them in the process."

Phyllis Alpert Lehrer

As my piano professor during my graduate studies at Westminster Choir College, Phyllis Lehrer helped me listen to myself play in a new way through some of the techniques she developed in ​The Inner Game of Music Workbook for Piano, which she co-authored with Barry Green.​  Her influence set me on the path toward what has become a guiding professional passion: harnessing one's inner dialogue to promote effective and efficient practicing and produce engaging, artistic performances.