Piano educator and Illinois State University alumnus Fred Kern will present “Symphonic Masterworks Through a Zoom Lens” on Thursday, Oct. 14, at 11 a.m. in Kemp Recital Hall. The event, sponsored by Illinois State’s School of Music, is free and open to the public.
Kern is the coordinator of piano pedagogy and keyboard skills and professor of music at the University of North Texas in Denton. His presentation will focus on how familiar orchestral works can illustrate music fundamentals used by master composers. Through recorded works and live keyboard demonstrations, he will examine the creative process of music and how listeners can hear what they read, write what they hear, and respond by singing and playing.
Kern is a highly respected clinician and has lead workshops in 36 states across the nation, as well as in Canada and Taiwan. He is an innovator in teaching fundamentals of music and pianism with fresh and inspiring perspectives incorporating creative approaches to learning.
Kern received his bachelor’s degree from Illinois State and is being honored this year with induction into the new College of Fine Arts Alumni Hall of Fame. He has also been named the 2010 School of Music Alumnus of the Year. He is the author, or co-author, of seven piano methods and numerous volumes of pedagogical publications to which he has contributed original compositions, arrangements and pedagogy curricula. One method, the Hal Leonard Student Piano Library, has been translated into eight languages.
