Piano, Collaborative Piano, Organ, Harpsichord
The Keyboard Department offers instruction and performance opportunities for keyboardists in various specialties. Undergraduates majoring in piano performance move through a curriculum designed to ground their knowledge and curiosity in the rigors of the classical tradition. Graduate piano performance majors explore a range of repertoire and encounter a variety of degree recital performance expectations. Collaborative piano majors work with faculty and students in all applied areas and ensembles to enhance their partnering expertise in art song, duo sonata, chamber, opera, and orchestral music. Organ and harpsichord majors experience solo and chamber opportunities as they deepen their repertoire and style understanding.
Keyboard Faculty
Program of Study
Piano
In keeping with its long history of world-class instruction, the piano area offers BM, MM, DMA degrees in Piano Performance, as well as the Performance Diploma and Artist Diploma. Within the departmental community, both undergraduate and graduate piano majors have opportunities to participate in master classes, competitions, seminars, and departmental recitals.
Internationally-recognized faculty artists guide piano majors in the development of their artistry and technique. Faculty members are active as adjudicators of international competitions and as teaching faculty in summer festivals including the Szechuan International Piano Festival and the San Juan International Piano Festival. They encourage BU pianists to participate in these festivals as well as others facilitated by BU faculty in Russia, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy, and China. Partial funding for festival and competition participation is offered through the Clare Meeker Undergraduate Fellowship program and the Graduate Student Travel Fund.
Undergraduate piano students receive conservatory-level training alongside a wide range of academic requirements and options. Students may pursue a double major and/or take classes from across the University, thereby expanding their network and encountering a variety of curricular opportunities and explorations. As performance majors, first- and second-year students must complete semester juries; third- and fourth-year students perform required recitals from memory.
Graduate piano majors may apply for assistantships in teaching (private lessons and group piano classes), accompaniment, and large ensemble work. Pianists at the MM and PD levels perform two recital programs from memory; Artist Diploma pianists present three public recitals. Doctoral-level pianists choose the Recital Track (5 recitals) or Dissertation Track (3 recitals).
In addition to curricular courses in music theory and musicology, keyboard majors take required and elective courses in pedagogy, literature, accompaniment skills, chamber and ensemble music, and sonata and song repertoire, as well as introductory courses in organ and harpsichord.
Piano majors achieve their practice goals on acoustic as well as digital and hybrid instruments, offering a variety of options for developing technique and tone production. With its 119 state-of-the-art practice rooms, BU School of Music is your ideal laboratory to unfold your curiosity and experiment musically.
Audition Requirements
Thinking of applying? Find out more about prescreening, repertoire, and audition details by instrument.
Performance Opportunities
With hundreds of performances per year at the School of Music you will always be just a few steps from taking the stage. Students perform regularly including annual performances at Symphony Hall in Boston and Carnegie Hall in New York City.
In addition to individual private lessons, piano students participate in studio activities, perform in recitals and masterclasses, and also have the opportunity to compete in the annual BU Concerto Competition, several award winners of which have been invited to perform with the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall. In addition, our highly-competitive Richmond Competition, which is only open to BU piano students, offers a prize of $10,000 and a prestigious appearance at the Tsai Performing Arts Center. Piano students are also active with the esteemed Boston University Center for Beethoven Research.
And don’t forget: this is Boston, a city where music matters. Our piano students are provided an exciting array of opportunities and having access to all that Boston offers means that students have an endless supply of musical events and inspiration right outside their door!
Notable Alumni
Graduates of Boston University’s Piano programs have won major awards at the Hamamatsu, Jaen, Dallas and Moscow Liszt international piano competitions. Our students perform worldwide in festivals and concerts and have gone on in recent years to be on the piano faculty of such institutions as Beijing Normal University, China Conservatory, Seoul National University, and numerous other universities in the US and abroad.
Leon Bernsdorf (CFA’14,’16, BUTI’10)
Third Prize at the Fourteenth Liszt Ferenc International Piano Competition
Nan Cai (CFA’13)
Manager/Owner of Hongjing (Beijing) Cultural Development Co., Ltd. (artist management)
Lucy Chen (CFA’11,’15)
Vice-President of Advocacy and Community Engagement, Cathedral Arts Project, Jacksonville, FL; Founding Director, Keys on Parade – Jacksonville, FL
Hokyong Choi (CFA’18)
Piano Faculty, Seoul National University; First Prize, Concert Artists International Virtuoso Competition; Second Prize, Paderewski International Piano Competition
Pierre-Nicholas Colombat (CFA’21)
Correpetiteur, Theatre Basel, Switzerland; Prize-winner, Bollinger/Wigmore Hall Competition (with Vinicius Costa, bass-baritone)
Patrick Elisha-Sanmiguel (CFA’19, BUTI’10)
Vice-President Education Division, M. Steinert & Sons, Boston
Bo Hao (CFA’20)
Resident Pianist, Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra
Yu Jin (CFA’18)
Yangtzee River Piano Artist; Piano Faculty, Shandong University of Arts; Chamber Music Faculty, Tianjin Juilliard School, Pre-College
Kyung Ah Kim (CFA’14)
Piano Faculty, Seoul National University
Alexia Mouza (CFA’13)
Finalist and Chopin Prize Winner, Arthur Rubenstein International Piano Competition
Athalya Salim (CFA’18)
Director, IB Music Program for the Primary Years; Canadian International School; Singapore
Bing Shen (CFA’16)
Lecturer, Beijing Normal University
Xixi Xiang (CFA’18)
Piano Faculty, Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing
Tianhong Yang (CFA’24)
Founding Pianist, Aroma Duo
Jin Zhi
Steinway Artist
Boston University Collaborative Piano majors have held apprenticeships with prestigious institutions including American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) – Graz, Austria; Canadian Opera Company – Toronto, Ontario; Central City Opera – Colorado; Classic Lyric Arts – Italy; San Francisco Opera; The Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme – Adelburgh, Suffolk; and the Washington National Opera – Washington, DC.
They have attended, or been staff pianists at, summer festivals such as the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival and School, Banff Centre, Music Academy of the West, Schubert Institute–Austria, SongFest–Los Angeles, and Source Song.
Our alumni are professionally engaged as staff pianists for opera and ballet companies, Broadway shows, and choruses across the country. They are also employed professionally as teachers, coaches, and staff pianists at universities and music schools worldwide.
Jing-Fang Huang (CFA’23)
Lecturer in Collaborative Piano, Baylor School of Music, TX
Yoko Igarashi (CFA’12)
Pianist, Boston Ballet
Jessica Modaff (CFA’08’19)
Collaborative Pianist; Assistant Teaching Professor in Music; Gordon College, MA
Robert Mollicone (CFA’07,’09)
Pianist / Assistant Conductor, San Francisco Opera, CA
Dahee Park (CFA’24)
Staff Pianist – Strings, Boston University
Jinhyang Park
AsPiano Faculty, Keene State University, NH
Kimly Mengyin Wang
Artistic Director, International School of Art Canada, Toronto Canada
Rebecca Zeisler (CFA’12)
Senior Lecturer in Collaborative Piano, Texas Tech University, TX
Next Steps for Applicants
The best way to determine if BU is right for you is to visit us in-person or remotely. Observe classes. Faculty members are available to meet with you and to discuss your educational interests, individual learning needs, and career goals.
Explore our admission requirements, financial tools, and resources to determine if the program is the right match. Reach out to visitSOM@bu.edu with any questions along the way.
