Saturday, March 28, 2020
8:30 AM to 4 PM


Weber Music Hall
1151 University Dr
Duluth, MN 55812

​Registration*:
Note:   When registering, please select Division 1 (2-3 years of piano study) OR Division 2 (4 or more year of piano study)

$25  Early Registration (through Jan 10)
$30  Regular Registration (from Jan 11 - Feb 10)
$35  Late Registration (from Feb 11 - Mar 10)

*additional fees apply

The Annual Piano Day, hosted by the UMD Department of Music, welcomes pre-college piano students to our campus! The whole-day event is filled with fun educational activities. Together with Dr. Asami Hagiwara, Assistant Professor of Piano at UMD, students will prepare a Monster Piano Concert, where they perform ensemble repertoire as a large group, like a choir or orchestra, using multiple pianos. This will take place in the Weber Music Hall as a final event of the day at 3pm. In addition to rehearsals, masterclasses, an improvisation session, and a final student concert, our guest artist Dr. Christine Tithecott (Assistant Professor of Piano at Western University) will give a solo concert on Friday evening at 6pm.
 
The registration fee includes music, lunch, and post-concert reception. Our co-sponsor of this event, Duluth Fine Pianos, LLC will offer all participating students a UMD Piano Day T-shirt and one lucky student will have a chance to win a Yamaha Digital Piano P45 (value of $550)!!

Questions: Contact Dr. Asami Hagiwara at ahagiwar@d.umn.edu

Guest Artist Concert - Dr. Christine Tithecott
Friday, March 27, 2020
6 PM
FREE
Weber Music Hall

Dr. Christine Tithecott, Assistant Professor of Piano at Western University (London, Canada), will present a program of 20^th and 21^st Century Canadian compositions. The Canadian classical music legacy is rich while being simultaneously eclectic and distinctive. This program will highlight Canadian composers who have written works for young students along with works performed in concert halls from coast to coast. From the impressionist inspired works of composer/pianist Heather Schmidt, to the Asian influences of Alexina Louie, to the bold and vibrant works of T. Pat Carrabre, this concert will uncover a selection of beautiful, fascinating, and innovative compositions.
 

Monster Piano Concert
Saturday, March 28, 2020
3 PM
FREE
Weber Music Hall

The final event of UMD Piano Day is Monster Piano Concert performed by the pre-college participants. With many acoustic pianos on the stage, students will play ensemble repertoire together in a large group like an orchestra. Please join us for this unique opportunity to listen to a monster piano orchestra!

Dr. Christine Tithecott
Assistant Professor of Piano
Western University (London, Ontario, Canada)

Dr. Asami Hagiware
Assistant Professor of Piano
University of Minnesota Duluth

Christine Tithecott holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Iowa, as well as a MMus in Performance and a BMus (Honours) in Music Education from the University of Western Ontario. She has worked previously at Iowa State University in Ames, IA.  
 
In high demand as a clinician and adjudicator, Dr. Tithecott presents master classes for young pianists and workshops on pedagogical topics for piano teachers throughout North America.  She has presented lectures at national conferences for the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) and the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Associations (CFMTA). Christine is a member of the College of Examiners for the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM), Canadian Music Festival Adjudicators Association (CMFAA), and a clinician for the Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association (ORMTA). Additionally, Dr. Tithecott has served as en editor for Conservatory Canada’s New Millennium Series.
 
An avid performer, Dr. Tithecott has had the opportunity to perform as a solo and collaborative artist throughout Canada, USA, and Europe. Christine has a strong passion for performing and promoting contemporary repertoire, and has performed with numerous new music ensembles including Ensemble 319, and The CNM Ensemble (Iowa City, IA).   
 
Christine currently resides in London, Ontario and is an Assistant Professor at Western University’s Don Wright Faculty of Music, where she teaches Piano Pedagogy and Chamber Music. She also works as a collaborative artist, and maintains a full studio of private piano students. www.ChristineTithecott.com

Dr. Asami Hagiwara has been praised for her “tone-color palette of great warmth and nuanced richness” (Fuldaer Zeitung). Recent appearances include concerts in Austria, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, and the U.S.A. She has been invited to perform in music festivals including the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Grieg Festival, Joutseno Art Summer, the Liszt-Garrison Festival, Mänttä Music Festival, and the PIANALE International Academy. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Piano and the Chair of the Piano Area at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
 
In addition to her wide range of performing repertoire from Baroque to contemporary music, Hagiwara specializes in works of Nordic composers, especially those of Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius. Her doctoral document, Guide to the Published Solo Piano Music of Jean Sibelius, provides an overview of Sibelius’s rarely performed 115 piano works. As an American-Scandinavian Foundation research fellow, she spent a year at the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki, Finland), which deepened her understanding of the Nordic sound and composers.
 
Outside of her university teaching, Hagiwara hosts a community outreach event, UMD Piano Day, and directs the piano division of the Northshore Summer Music Experience. She was a guest teacher at summer festivals including Encontro Internacional de Pianistas de Piracicaba (Piracicaba, Brazil), the University of Iowa’s Youth Summer Camp (Iowa City, IA), and the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp (Twin Lake, Michigan). She frequently serves on competition and contest jury panels for organizations such as Edward Grieg Society, MTNA, NFMC, and Thursday Musical.
 
Previously, Hagiwara held several teaching positions at the collegiate level including lecturer positions at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville (Platteville, WI), the Iowa State University (Ames, IA), and the University of Dubuque (Dubuque, IA), and was the coordinator of the University of Iowa’s Pre-College Piano Conservatory (PCPC).
 
Hagiwara has been a recipient of American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellowship, Clara Rolland Award, Thomas J. Smith Award, and Gertraude Weber Gassman Award. Her former piano teachers include Erik T. Tawaststjerna at the Sibelius Academy, Ksenia Nosikova at the University of Iowa, William Heiles at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Marialena Fernandes at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, and Emilio del Rosario at the Music Institute of Chicago. www.asamihagiwara.com