About
Beth served as chair of the music department and taught piano, piano repertoire, piano pedagogy and advanced theory. She is a member of the faculty piano trio, Trillium, and is frequently heard on stage with them as well as with other faculty artists. She has been a featured soloist with the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra three times (Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto; Beethoven, Choral Fantasy; Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue) and holds the chair of principal keyboard in addition to serving as rehearsal pianist for the DSSO Symphony Chorus.
A native of northwest Iowa, Beth attended the University of Northern Iowa to pursue her passion for teaching, earning degrees in piano performance and choral music education. She then continued her studies at the University of Michigan and the University of Arizona. Her principal teachers were Suzanne Conklin-Happ, Marleta Matheson, Benning Dexter, Eugene Bossart and Richard Faith.
Beth joined UW-Superior in 1983 and has performed solo and chamber music recitals in more than a dozen states and Canada, and has been a featured clinician at the MTNA National Convention as well as the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy. Her piano students have won numerous awards and competitions including MTNA competitions (state-level) in high school and collegiate divisions, WMTA Badger Keyboard, Lake Superior Ragtime Society, DSSO Young Artist award, and UW-Superior Concerto competitions.
She has received the UW-Superior Chancellor’s Award for Exemplary Advising, the Chancellor’s Award for Model Teaching, an Alumni Award for Excellence in Performance and Teaching from the University of Arizona, and was chosen by the UW-Superior Alumni Association to receive an Honorary Alumnus Award in 1997. Beth was a member of the staff of the world-famous Interlochen Arts Camp in Interlochen, Michigan for 35 summers.
Education
- 1983 – Doctor of Music Arts (D.M.A.) – Piano Performance, University of Arizona
- 1973 – Master of Music (M.M.) – Piano Performance, University of Michigan
- 1971 – Bachelor of Music (B.M.) – Piano Performance, University of Northern Iowa
- 1971 – Bachelor of Music Education – Vocal/General Music, University of Northern Iowa