West Virginia University doctoral music student Sheila Barnhart recently won 2013 Best Research Poster, Student Division, at the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy held in Lombard, Ill., for her poster session on Chopin’s preludes.
“This is a great tribute to the caliber of her efforts and the guidance from WVU faculty,” said piano professor Christine Kefferstan, who is Barnhart’s faculty mentor.
Barnhart’s project was titled “Chopin’s Preludes: Teaching Technical Skills without the Scary Title of Etude.”
The poster session included discussions and performances of select Chopin preludes, drawing on Barnhart’s experience performing the entire set. The focus of the project was the technical benefits of each prelude and suggestions for practice methods.
“One of the challenges of teaching music is finding repertoire that serves a technical purpose and that is also musically engaging,” she said. “For piano teachers, Chopin’s Preludes Op. 28 satisfies both of these criteria.”
The session also included handout packets containing a table of difficulty grading of all preludes, a table of technical skills found in the preludes, a table of primary technical elements for each prelude, an annotated bibliography of helpful literature concerning Op. 28, as well as a discography of recordings that Barnhart personally recommended.
The National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy used a juried selection process to award recognition to a preeminent poster in both professional and student presentations. The criteria for adjudication were: significance, relevance, research design, rigor, quality of presentation and impact.
In addition, the research had to be judged to be current and to contain readily understood explicit or implicit recommendations that are likely to improve knowledge and practice in piano pedagogy.
Barnhart previously won second place in the WVU College of Creative Arts Mentored Research Awards, Graduate Category, last spring with her “Chopin’s Preludes” and it was also selected by peer review for the West Virginia Music Teachers Association 2012 Conference held at Shepherd University.
A native of New Freeport, Pa., Barnhart is studying piano performance with Christine Kefferstan, and serves as the graduate assistant piano technician. She earned a master’s degree in music from WVU and a bachelor’s degree from Westminster College where she studied with Nancy Zipay-DeSalvo. Her article “Engaging, Accessible and Fresh: Ferruccio Busoni’s Two-Piano Transcriptions of Works by Mozart” was published in the September 2011 issue of the MTNA E-Journal, a collaborative effort with Kefferstan.
Awarded the 2010 WVU Graduate Enrichment Fellowship, Barnhart is an active member of the WVU collegiate chapter of the Music Teachers National Association, and teaches in the WVU Community Music Program. She has presented at WVMTA conferences in Harrisonburg, Va., Shepherdstown, W.Va., and in Morgantown. Barnhart was a 2013 and 2010 winner of the Young Artist concerto competition at WVU, and has performed for numerous master classes, including performances for Laura Melton of Bowling Green State University and French-Italian pianist Olivier Cav�. Barnhart has also performed as an invited Guest Artist for the Steinway Society of Western Pennsylvania’s lunchtime concert series, and at Westminster College.
“I was fortunate to have the help of several faculty members in preparing for the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, including Nicholas Perna, Mary Ferer, and Christine Kefferstan,” she said. “I think it’s great that our faculty members are all so supportive and willing to help.”
-WVU-
9/16/13
CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4359, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu
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