Artist
​Adjudicators/Presenters
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• Program Director: Evelyn Billberg
• Artistic Director & Founder: Dr. Arthur Houle
• Executive Director, Abundant Silence: Luke Rackers

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JOHN SALMON is the only person to have served as a judge for this festival every year since its founding in 2001. He has distinguished himself on four continents, as both a classical and jazz artist.

In the United States, he has given recitals for the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, the Discovery Series in Indianapolis, the Van Cliburn Foundation in Fort Worth, and a Busoni Gala at Symphony Space in New York. He has also appeared as recitalist at many colleges and universities across the United States, including Tulane, Vanderbilt,  Cincinnati College Conservatory, and San Francisco State University.
 
His broad repertoire covers the classics – Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms – though his involvement with contemporary music is equally strong. He has championed and been at the forefront of performing new works by such celebrated composers as Dave Brubeck, Nikolai Kapustin, and Lalo Schifrin.

Dr. John Salmon

His performances have been heard on many radio stations in the U.S., including NPR, WNYC in New York, WFMT in Chicago, and KUSC in Los Angeles; and on the national radio stations of Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Moldova, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Ukraine.
 
John is also a frequent guest performer at festivals in the U.S. and Europe, having appeared at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival (Charleston, South Carolina), Piano Festival Northwest (Portland, Oregon), Interlochen Piano Festival (Interlochen, Michigan), Festival Internacional de Música del Mediterráneo (Cartagena, Spain), and the International Bartók Festival (Szombathely, Hungary). He has toured China six times, with concerts in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Hangzhou.

Other special appearances include an all-Liszt recital in Mexico City for the American Liszt Society and an all-Brubeck recital in Washington, DC for the Music Teachers National Association, after which he jammed at two pianos with Dave Brubeck in a spontaneous version of Duke Ellington's "Things Ain't What They Used to Be." He has also been the featured artist for the Music Teachers National Association state conferences in California (CAPMT), Virginia (VMTA), and Minnesota (MMTA).  

His versatility often produces striking juxtapositions. In one concert with the Wilmington (North Carolina) Symphony in 2001, Salmon performed Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto in the first half, and then, in the second half, Dave Brubeck's Elementals for orchestra and jazz trio (with Brubeck’s sons, bassist Chris and drummer Dan). See here for his Bach/Brubeck medley in the 2015 Festival for Creative Pianists.
 
John has recorded four compact discs of Dave Brubeck's classical piano music, on the Phoenix, Naxos, and Albany
labels. Brubeck dedicated two compositions to Salmon - "The Salmon Strikes (song sample)" and "Bach Again (song sample)." John's CD of piano pieces by Nikolai Kapustin is also on the Naxos label, and his CD of his own jazz compositions, Salmon Is A Jumpin', was released by Albany Records in November 2010. (YouTube title track - John Salmon on two pianos, sound on sound. See also the 6/1/16 festival live jam recording with Houle, Gillespie & Olson - program: pdf).

As guest lecturer, John has spoken on a wide array of topics – e.g., "Beethoven’s Shadow" (The Juilliard School), "September 1828: Schubert’s Last Three Piano Sonatas" (Boston Conservatory), and "Adding Notes to Classical Scores" (Conservatorio de Música, Morelia, Mexico).
 
As author, he has covered such subjects as "What Brubeck Got From Milhaud (full article)" and "Urtext, que me veux tu? (full article)" and other articles have appeared in American Music Teacher, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Clavier, College Music Society Newsletter, Piano & Keyboard, and Piano Today. His book, The Piano Sonatas of Carl Loewe, was published by Peter Lang Publishing in 1996. Add On Bach, called "playful, creative, and unique" by Clavier Companion, contains John's added lines, varied reprises, and cadenzas to keyboard works of J. S. Bach. Jazz Up the Inventions and Jazz Up the Sinfonias have his jazzy accompaniments to J. S. Bach's Two-Part Inventions and Three-Part Inventions. Jazz Standards has his arrangements of twelve classic pieces from the American songbook, including "All of Me," "Blue Moon," and "Over the Rainbow."
 
John has been a member of the faculty of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Music since 1989. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The University of Texas at Austin; the Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School; the Solistendiplom from the Hochschule für Musik, Freiburg, Germany; and the Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts (philosophy) degrees from Texas Christian University. His awards include the Premio Jaén (1979), the Gina Bachauer Award from Juilliard, a fellowship from the Beethoven Foundation (known nowadays as the American Pianists Association), and prizes from the 1979 University of Maryland (William Kapell Competition) and 1984 Busoni competitions. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1954.

Educational articles

International reviews: docx or pdf

Publications (see prizes page for special John Salmon award):
 • Jazz up the Sinfonias (J. S. Bach) by John Salmon
 • Jazz Standards arranged for solo piano by John Salmon [SEE REVIEW IN AMT]
 • Jazz Up the Inventions: J. S. Bach's Two-Part Inventions with Jazzy Accompaniments (duet)
 • Add On Bach: Variants, Lead-ins, and New Lines Added to Selected Inventions (solo & duet)
 • Videos
 • Dave Brubeck At the Piano – Edited by John Salmon (Amazon) - or see Sheetmusicplus
 • Seriously Brubeck – Edited by Gail Lew & John Salmon (contact Dr. Salmon re: misprints in this edition)
 • Nocturnes by Dave Brubeck – Edited by John Salmon
 • Original music by Salmon recorded on CD: Salmon Is a Jumpin'
   (Write to Dr. Salmon about his original compositions in manuscript.)
 • Recordings on YouTube

A sampling of Dr. Salmon's expressive gestures at the 2017 Festival for Creative Pianists adjudications:

John Salmon & Connor Watz

Maria Evans & John Salmon

John Salmon & Maria Ali

A bemused Maria Ali looks on as Dr. Salmon makes a point in his own inimitable way

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KEVIN OLSON is an active pianist, composer, and member of the piano faculty at Utah State University, where he has taught courses in piano literature, pedagogy, collaborative piano, music theory, aural skills, and others. In addition to his collegiate teaching responsibilities, Kevin coordinates the piano program at Utah State University, and oversees the Utah State University Youth Conservatory, which provides weekly group and private piano instruction to more than 200 pre-college community students. The National Association of Schools of Music has recently recognized the Conservatory as a model for pre-college piano instruction programs. Before teaching at Utah State, he was on the faculty at Elmhurst College near Chicago and Humboldt State University in northern California.
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A native of Utah, Kevin began composing at age five. When he was twelve, his composition, An American Trainride, received the Overall First Prize at the 1983 National PTA Convention at Albuquerque, New Mexico. Since then he has been a Composer in Residence at the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, and has written music commissioned and performed by groups such as the Five Browns, American Piano Quartet, American Festival Choir and Orchestra, Chicago a cappella, the Rich Matteson Jazz Festival, Music Teachers National Association, and several piano teacher associations around the country. He gives workshops and performances nationally and internationally, most recently in India, China, Canada, and Great Britain.
 
Kevin maintains a large piano studio, teaching students of a variety of ages and abilities. Many of the needs of his own piano students have inspired hundreds of books and solos published by the FJH Music Company, which he joined as a writer in 1994.

Publications (see prizes page for special Kevin Olson award):
 • Complete list of Olson publications with FJH
 • NFMC Choice: Impressions on Color
 • Recordings: University of Iowa Piano Pedagogy Video Recording Project


Dr. Olson inspires students at the 2017 Festival for Creative Pianists adjudications:

Dr. Kevin Olson
(Biennial judge; will return in 2021)

Kevin Olson and Sophie Brants

Genesse Johannik and Kevin Olson

Kevin Olson and Kira Waite

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Will return in 2021

Wynn-Anne Rossi

For three successive years (2017-19), WYNN-ANNE ROSSI joined our trio of distinguished artist adjudicators; we look forward to her return in 2021. As a dynamic composer and unique music educator, Wynn-Anne's compositions have reached audiences throughout the United States and around the world. She has over 100 publications, primarily for piano, that are widely distributed online and in music stores. Her repertoire also includes works for vocal and chamber groups, concert band and orchestra. Various commissions have been sponsored by Minnesota Public Radio, the National Endowment for the Arts, Music Teachers National Association and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. 

Wynn-Anne has a specialty for bringing the art of composition to young musicians. She has been offering composition residencies in Minnesota schools and across the country since 2003, inspiring hundreds of students to write their own music. Partnerships have included the MUNDI Project (UT), the Linda Luebke Strings Festival (IN), the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (MN), and many more. Rossi has also written two comprehensive series that encourage young pianists to compose: Music by Me (FJH, with Kevin Olson) and most recently, Creative Composition Toolbox (Alfred).                               

Active as a presenter, Wynn-Anne is known for her innovative lectures, workshops and master classes. She lectures on a wide variety of subjects, including the importance of “Speaking Music” and “American Music: Jazz meets Latin,” inspired by her two popular series, Música Latina and Jazzin’ Americana (Alfred).  

Rossi was educated in music theory and composition at the University of Colorado. Further training included choral conducting at Harvard University and jazz pedagogy through the University of Illinois. She has also studied composition under Pulitzer Prize recipient Aaron Jay Kernis.

Still curious? Visit www.rossi-music.com and check out the following links:
• Wednesdays with Wynn-Anne: Short videos on creativity & composition
• YouTube performances of her compositions

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Publications (see prizes page for special Wynn-Anne Rossi award):
 • Rossi website info (best source)
 • Onlinesheetmusic
 • Recordings: University of Iowa Piano Pedagogy Video Recording Project
 • NEW: A lesson on Jazzin' Americana (terrific 4-book series)

Wynn-Anne Rossi offers constructive feedback to students at the 2017 Festival for Creative Pianists adjudications:

Wynn-Anne Rossi & Desi Silverman-Joseph

Wynn-Anne Rossi & Heather Hunt

Wynn-Anne Rossi & Renée Hoyt

Wynn-Anne Rossi & Abby Waite

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Dr. Matt Cooper

Dr. Matt Cooper was a clinician and recitalist for the 2004 Festival for Creative Pianists.
We welcome him back in 2022 (tentative) as a distinguished artist adjudicator and presenter.

Matt Cooper is a Professor Emeritus of Music at Eastern Oregon University, where he was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Faculty award. He is the author of a Duke Ellington: A Study in Styles (College Music Society, 2013) and has been a keynote speaker and recitalist on Ellington’s piano music at conferences in Amsterdam, in England, and at Reed College (Portland). A prizewinner in the Thelonious Monk International and Great American Jazz Piano Competitions (1988), he has toured with the Woody Herman big band, and performed or recorded with many jazz artists such as Eddie Harris, Nancy King, Glen Moore, the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, and Clark Terry.
 
Dr. Cooper has performed jazz and classical recitals and concertos with orchestras throughout the United States, as well as in the Russian Far East. He has recorded four jazz and classical CDs, and has been a guest artist at festivals such as the San Juan College (New Mexico) Jazz Festival, University of Wisconsin-Platteville Jazz Festival, Piano Duet Festival-by-the-Sea, as well as the Festival of Creative Pianists when it was briefly located in Boise (2004). He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Oregon. Dr. Cooper has done extensive study in the Taubman approach to piano and has studied Tango music in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
 
Dr. Cooper has adjudicated many piano festivals and competitions throughout the Northwest, including the MTNA Performance Competitions in Washington and Montana, the Boise Sonatina Festival, and many others. A Past President and Lifetime Member of Oregon Music Teachers Association, he is in frequent demand throughout the Northwest as a performer, adjudicator, clinician and presenter, and he is known locally as the accompanist of choice for nationally-known jazz artists such as Rob Scheps, Kathy Kosins, and Dmitri Matheny.

First book-length study of Duke Ellington as pianist

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Distinguished Guest Artist
Victor Rosenbaum

We are pleased to announce that Victor Rosenbaum, internationally renowned veteran pianist, teacher, educator and administrator, will join us in an upcoming festival (2021 or 2022) as a very special recitalist and clinician.

For more information contact Evelyn Billberg.

American pianist Victor Rosenbaum has concertized widely as soloist and chamber music performer in the United States, Europe, Asia, Brazil, Israel, Finland, and Russia in such prestigious halls as Tully Hall in New York and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has collaborated with such artists as Leonard Rose, Paul Katz, Arnold Steinhardt, Robert Mann, Joseph Silverstein, James Buswell, Malcolm Lowe, and the Brentano, Borromeo, and Cleveland String Quartets. Festival appearances have included Tanglewood, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Kfar Blum and Tel Hai (in Israel), Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall (Blue Hill), Musicorda, Masters de Pontlevoy (France), the Heifetz Institute, the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York, the International Music Seminar in Vienna, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Festival at Walnut Hill School, the Puerto Rico International Piano Festival, and the Atlantic Music Festival. Concert appearances have brought him to Chicago, Minneapolis, Tokyo, Beijing, St. Petersburg (Russia), Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and New York, among others. In addition to his absorption in the music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (in particular Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, and Brahms), Rosenbaum has performed and given premieres of works by many contemporary composers, including John Heiss, Peter Westergaard, Norman Dinerstein, Arlene Zallman, Donald Harris, Daniel Pinkham, Miriam Gideon, Stephen Albert, and many others. A musician of diverse talents, Rosenbaum is also a composer and has frequently conducted in the Boston area and beyond.
 
Rosenbaum, who studied with Elizabeth Brock and Martin Marks in his home town of Indianapolis, and went on to study with Rosina Lhevinne at Aspen and Leonard Shure (while earning degrees at Brandeis University and Princeton) has become a renowned teacher himself. A long-time member of the faculty of New England Conservatory in Boston, whose Piano Department he chaired for more than a decade, he was also on the faculty of Mannes School of Music in New York from 2004-2017. He has been Visiting Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music, a guest teacher at Juilliard, and presents lectures, workshops, and master classes for teachers' groups and schools both in the U. S. and abroad, including London’s Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, and Guildhall School, the conservatories of St. Petersburg and Moscow, Beijing Central Conservatory, the Toho School in Tokyo and other institutions such as the Menuhin School, and the Jerusalem Music Center. From 1985 to 2001, Rosenbaum was Director and President of the Longy School of Music, and during that time, Longy became a flourishing community music school and a distinguished professional degree-granting conservatory.
 
His highly praised recording of Schubert is on Bridge Records and the release of the last three Beethoven sonatas on the same label was named by American Record Guide as one of the top ten classical recordings of 2005. Three discs on the Fleur de Son label feature music of Schubert and Mozart. A new disc of Beethoven and another of the late piano pieces of Brahms have just been released on the Bridge label.
 
Of his Tully Hall performance, the New York Times said, simply: "He could not have been better." And the Boston Globe described him as "one of those artists who make up for all the drudgery the habitual concert goer has to endure in the hopes of finding the occasional, real right thing."

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Evan Mazunik

Mazunik (at right) - 2018 festival

EVAN MAZUNIK stepped in as an artist adjudicator and clinician for 2018 and continues to have an ongoing role as a clinician. He plays contemporary and improvised music as a composer, keyboardist, and musical director in the Denver, CO area. Fluent in Soundpainting (52 videos), a sign language for live composition, Evan is composer/director for ZAHA, his NYC-based ensemble. He has performed with Carla Bley, Anthony Braxton, and Robin Eubanks, and has played at creative music venues such as Roulette, The Stone, and Dazzle.

As a composer, his commissions have included works for jazz band, chorus, and various solo instruments, as well as interdisciplinary works for theater, dance, and film. He scored the HBO2 documentary "The Checker King," which received critical acclaim at the DOCtober Film Fest in Santa Monica, CA.

As an educator, he founded the Sunnyside Piano Academy while in New York, and has collaborated with Jeffrey Agrell for master classes and workshops at Colorado Mesa University, University of Indiana, University of North Texas, Southern Mississippi University, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and many others.

In 2016, he was the first (and only) person - in conjunction with
Jeffrey Agrell - to perform a 100% improvised audience-interactive concert on Colorado Mesa University's Guest Artist Series (see Agrell-Mazunik program). He returned on September 25, 2019 to once again perform on CMU's Guest Artist Series with another improvisation enthusiast, Conrad Kehn.

Evan received a Bachelors degree in piano performance and a Masters in jazz studies from the University of Iowa. He currently serves as Director of Worship, Music & Arts at Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church in Englewood, CO.

Recordings by Evan Mazunik (Amazon)

Improvisation for Cello and Piano (YouTube)

Book (Kindle):
Seven Secrets to Masterful Practice

• table of contents & sample pages

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MARTHA HILL DUNCAN has been Abundant Silence's Featured Composition Educator. In 2022 (tentative), however, she will return - for the first time - as our third artist adjudicator/presenter.

A Texas native, she began piano lessons at the age of eight and later received a diploma in vocal music in the first graduating class of The Houston High School for Performing and Visual Arts. She earned a degree in composition from The University of Texas at Austin studying composition with Donald Grantham and piano with Gregory Allen, Danielle Martin, and Errol Haun. In Ithaca, New York she worked with pianist Trudi Borden and composer Robert Palmer and in 1982, moved to Canada with her husband, astrophysicist Martin Duncan. In Toronto she continued her musical studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music with composer Sam Dolin.

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One-on-one session at 2017 Festival for Creative Pianists

In recognition of her adopted country, many of Martha's vocal and choral works are set to Canadian texts. Some of these songs have won awards in both American and Canadian choral and art song competitions. In addition to her vocal writing, Martha is also known for her piano compositions, many of which were inspired by places where she has lived or visited. A piano examiner for The Royal Conservatory of Music, Martha is also a renowned clinician and frequent adjudicator. She lives in Kingston, Ontario with her husband and has two grown children: Alex, a mathematician and Claire, a singer, actress and voice over artist.

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Shana Kirk

Shana Kirk is a nationally recognized music education technology expert and consultant.
She is also a marketing specialist for TimeWarp Technologies, one of our generous sponsors.
Shana will return as a featured clinician in one or more of our upcoming festivals.

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Featured Artist for the next
Festival Alumni Celebration Recital
Jonathan Keith

Festival Prizewinner: 2003, 2004, & 2008

Here's what Jonathan Keith wrote about this festival's lasting impact on his life:

"The Festival for Creative Pianists gave me a fresh, new way of thinking about classical music, and perhaps more importantly, always left me inspired as to what a career path could look like for a young pianist and musician like myself. John Salmon and others at the festival served as role models for me (still do), and after learning many of Dr. Salmon's Brubeck arrangements by ear, I would play them at weddings and other gigs. This would later lead to my career choice to work as a composer for film/tv in Los Angeles. The thing that struck me most about the festival that seemed different from other ones was that at its core, it promoted versatility and the freedom to explore all avenues of music – including arranging pop music, playing jazz, composing original music… oh, and also performing your Bach, Beethoven and Brahms." 

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