Dr. Deirdre O’Donohue is a member of the artist piano and chamber music faculty at NYU’s Steinhardt School in the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions, and also the college and precollege faculties of Manhattan School of Music.
She has performed solo and chamber recitals in Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Canada and the United States. She has also given masterclasses and lecture/demonstrations at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Shanghai Conservatory, the Poona Music Society in India, the Rotterdam Conservatory, the World Piano Pedagogy Conference and at numerous music institutions throughout the United States and Canada. Dr. O’Donohue received the Sparrendam Medal for performance in the Netherlands, and the Roger Phelps Award from New York University for her dissertation entitled “The Concept of Unity and Uniqueness in the Multi-Movement Works of Beethoven.”
Recent engagements: Summer faculty, coach, and performer: Interharmony International Music Festival (Germany); Adamant Music School in Vermont; Summer Trios (Pennsylvania); Lectures/demonstrations: the Uniwersytet Muzyczny Fryderyka Chopina (Warsaw, Poland); the Piano Teachers’ Congress (Steinway Hall); the National Feis Ceoil Competition (Dublin); Adjudicator: Young Artists Festival in Seattle; the Royal Irish Academy of Music’s Piano Festival; the MTNA National Conference; Ithaca College of Music; Leschetizsky Association, NYSMTA, NJMTA, NHMTA, and external examiner for the Royal Irish Academy; Masterclasses at Interharmony International Music Festival (Germany); Yahama (NY); NYU, Queens College, New Hampshire, South Carolina; intensive week-long courses in piano technique and interpretation at the Gijon Conservatory in Spain; solo recitals in Weill Recital Hall, NYU; Convention Clinician for the South Carolina MTA.
She has co-edited (with Prof. Henk Hillenaar) the book Schubert and Friendship by Michael Davidson, which was published by the London publisher Kahn & Averill in the Fall of 2012.
O’Donohue is Past President of the NY State Music Teachers’ Association, former Chairperson of the MTNA’s Eastern Division High School Competition, and former Chairperson and founder of the NYSTMA Empire State Performance Competition. Since the summer of 2001 she has been on the faculty of the Adamant Music School in Adamant, Vermont, where she is also the Coordinator for week-long piano masterclasses of Menahem Pressler, John O’Conor, and Andre Laplante. She is also on the piano faculty of the Interharmony International Music Festival and coaches chamber music at Summertrios.
Dr. O’Donohue holds degrees from New York University, the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria, and Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
Pianist Nathaniel LaNasa lives at the intersection of song, story, and image. His recital-exhibition “Memory Prosthetic” explores the mechanics and conventions of musical notation through projections that accompany a live performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Nate recently originated the role of Mel, a graduate student pianist, in Bryce McClendon’s play, “The Smallest Sound in the Smallest Space,” off-Broadway.
Nate is an enthusiastic advocate for new music: he played sixty performances of Ricky Ian Gordon’s new opera for two pianos, Intimate Apparel, at Lincoln Center Theater, which was later broadcast on PBS Great Performances. He has premiered works for quarter-tone pianos by Dimitri Tymoczko at Princeton, made first recordings of chamber works by Tobias Picker for Tzadik, and performed works written for him by Molly Joyce, Shawn Jaeger, Matthew Ricketts, and Nate Wooley.
A consummate collaborator, he has been praised for his “stormy lyricism” (The New York Times) as well as his “poise and elegance” (Feast of Music). Nate and partner baritone Gregory Feldmann made their sold-out Carnegie Hall debut in February 2020. Nate also frequently partners with vocalist Lucy Dhegrae; they have performed together in the candlelit crypt of the Church of the Intercession, as part of the Resonant Bodies Festival, and at the American Music Festival (Albany Symphony). He’s also appeared in song partnerships at the Musée d’Orsay, Wigmore Hall, Royaumont Abbey, Brooklyn Art Song Society, and New York Festival of Song, where he curates their annual new music series, NYFOS Next. Nate’s NYC credits include Alice Tully Hall, MoMA, and (le) Poisson Rouge.
A graduate of the Juilliard School and a former fellow at Tanglewood, Nate continues his studies with Robert Durso. He has taught at festivals in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France, and teaches the Taubman Approach in his private studio in Manhattan. Nathaniel-LaNasa.com
Rosemary Caviglia has been teaching piano for three decades to students of all ages, but over the past 5 years, she has dedicated her work to teaching adults exclusively. It was early in her teaching life that she discovered an affinity for mature students. In 1991, she produced her first adult-only recital which featured 13 performers, from early to advanced levels of playing. It was the transformative aspect that impressed her the most; it begins with the desire to play a piece and moves toward realizing it with one’s own hands. There was excitement in participating with that meaningful process!
In 2010, Ms. Caviglia retired from Third Street Music School as piano teacher, chamber music coach and Chair of the Piano Department. During those 20 years as a faculty member, she listened thoughtfully to the work of her colleagues and observed effective methods of teaching. She learned that adults who study the piano learn differently from kids, and when she created the Adult Piano School in 2011, she designed the school to support the particular needs of the adult pianist. The school takes into consideration the issue of time commitment and schedule as well as provides a framework for developing the pianist. The overall tone is one of “no guilt” piano lessons where one can learn at any pace, while building a strong foundation as a musician.
At the heart of Adult Piano School is Works-In-Progress, which is a group playing class. It is a place to share one’s work at the piano within a community of kind and supportive musical peers. It encourages the practice of music as one of the performing arts, allowing the pianist to experience performance in an informal environment. WIP is a non-recital; pieces may be shared in part or whole, and sharing music with ones peers becomes one of the most effective tools for learning.
Ms. Caviglia grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area to parents who are artists. Her father, a trumpeter, taught instrumental music in the public school during the day and played with the orchestra at night. Her mother had the desire to paint all of her life and began to study at age 55. It was perhaps her mother’s bold move, recognizing herself as an artist, that most inspired Rosemary to value and appreciate the adult learner.
As a teenager, Ms. Caviglia studied with Janet Goodman Guggenheim, who is Itzhak Perlman’s accompanist. Ms. Guggenheim encouraged chamber music and collaboration. The greatest influence came from her teacher Aiko Onishi, who cultivated the relationship between expression and sound through touch at the keyboard. This remains her work of a lifetime.
In 1987, Ms. Caviglia moved to New York City to study music. She explored Dalcroze Eurhythmics with Robert Abramson, and continued on to earn a Master of Music degree in piano performance at the Manhattan School of Music. At New York University, she became enamoured with the music of Leo Kraft, whose music became the subject of her doctoral dissertation “The Piano Music of Leo Kraft.”
Known for the passion and authenticity he brings to his performances, pianist Walter Aparicio has dedicated his career to championing the music of Latin America. He has conducted workshops and delivered recitals nationwide and abroad, introducing audiences to seldom-heard pieces from the Latin American repertoire, with a special focus on his homeland, Bolivia. In doing so, he forges connections to dance, language, and folk traditions, aiming to inspire inquiry on matters of cultural heritage and identity.
Most recently, Mr. Aparicio has been seen in FUTUROS: new ideas in composition at the Lincoln Center Atrium, co-presented by New Latin Wave. This program highlighted the diverse voices of Latin America composers writing for the piano today. Other notable New York credits include alternative spaces such as the Cell Theatre, Firehouse Space, and Soapbox Gallery as well as more traditional venues like Steinway Hall, Carnegie Hall & Symphony Space. Outside of the US, he has presented performances at the International Academy of Music in St. Petersburg (Russia), the Beijing International Music Festival & Academy (China), and Barcelona Piano Academy (Spain) and in his native Bolivia for the Festival Internacional de la Interculturalidad.
His debut album “Aires Indios: Piano Music of Bolivia” (MSR Classics) showcases compositions by Eduardo Caba, Simeón Roncal, and Marvin Sandi—three trailblazing Bolivian composers. Mr. Aparicio is affiliated with Cayambis Music Press, a prominent publisher of works by Latin American music. In this capacity, Walter advocates for and records the latest works from the publisher’s talented composers.
An adventurous artist, Walter has participated in performance installations such as Allora & Calzadilla’s Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on Ode to Joy for a Prepared Piano. Taking place at the Gladstone Gallery, NY, the work involved the pianist performing backwards – from a hole cut inside a grand piano – while moving the instrument around the gallery space. The work transforms the player/instrument dynamic, and this experience has been part of Mr. Aparicio’s ongoing inquiry into the nature of performance and the artist-audience relationship. Other ventures have included collaborations with the Nouveau Classical Project (where fashion meets music) and Notes on Fiction, a series where musical references in literature are presented as a fluid reading/concert hybrid.
Breaking new ground in the nonprofit sector, Walter serves as the Founder & President of the Foundation for Bolivian Artists, Inc. This organization is committed to discovering, promoting, and providing support to musicians of Bolivian heritage through its programs. Through these initiatives, he endeavors to foster a close-knit community of Bolivian musicians, granting them visibility and underscoring the significance and unique perspective they bring from their distinct cultural background.
To learn more about Mr. Aparicio or his foundation please visit: www.walteraparicio.com or www.bolivianartistfoundation.org
