Vera Parkin

January 10
10 a.m.  — Noon
Steinway

Coaching a Piece to Peak and Keeping It There until Performance
Vera Parkin

Vera Parkin began her teaching career the same year she got married, 1980. Since then she’s had a wonderful time teaching over 400 piano students of all ages and levels. As founding artistic director of the Preparatory Program of the Community Music School of Webster University, she coached, accompanied and mentored several hundred advanced pre-professional instrumental students. A keyboardist with the St. Louis Symphony for 32 years, she was honored as the orchestra’s Music Educator of the Year in 2011. A student of Ruth Slenczynska, Seth Carlin and Gui Mombaert, Parkin was also mentored by legendary Suzuki pioneer John Kendall and is strongly associated with the string repertoire and chamber music. She is a past Artist Presentation Society winner. She has taught in Lebanon and Kurdistan through the cultural diplomacy agency American Voices, and is about to host her fourth international student, a young Kurdish pianist who will write the first Kurdish piano method series as her masters degree thesis. Vera’s long-suffering husband greets her most evenings after teaching by asking “so did you have any magical stories with happy endings today?”