The Lied Center for Performing Arts and the Glenn Korff School of Music will host the annual Lied Center Piano Academy July 14-19, led by Paul Barnes, Marguerite Scribante Professor of Piano, who serves as artistic director.
The academy has record enrollment this year with 22 participants accepted.
“We’re very, very excited that word is clearly spreading about the Lied Center Piano Academy,” Barnes said.
The featured artist this year is Madeline Rogers, a Glenn Korff School of Music alumna, who is the assistant professor of keyboard studies at Berea College.
Rogers will perform a recital at 7 p.m. July 15 in Kimball Recital Hall. The performance is free and open to the public. It’s one of four free public performances during the academy week.
Her significant international performances include the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and a recurring scholarship at Brahmshaus Baden-Baden, where she researched and performed in 2022 and 2024.
In 2024, Rogers toured Vietnam with faculty from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln as part of their Global Arts Academy, teaching master classes and performing at renowned music schools in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam.
The Sean Lebita Quintet will also be performing a jazz concert during the academy at 7 p.m. July 17 in Kimball Recital Hall. This concert will also be free and open to the public.
Lebita is a collaborative and jazz pianist and also a Glenn Korff School of Music alumnus. He has performed at the Lied Center for Performing Arts, as well as with the Omaha Symphony. In 2018, he won the Nebraska MTNA Young Artist Competition for piano.
In 2024, the Sean Lebita Quintet recorded their debut album, “Rose Tinted Glasses,” a six-track collection of his own compositions and arrangements.
Two additional recitals will take place during the academy. The duet recital for all academy fellows will be held at 10:30 a.m. July 19 followed by the solo recitals at 1 p.m. in Kimball Recital Hall. Both recitals are free and open to the public.
Other teaching artists at the Lied Piano Academy include alumnus and Nebraska Wesleyan University Professor of Music Feifei Jiang; alumnus Marcelo Lian; and Glenn Korff School of Music faculty Tom Larson and David von Kampen.
Barnes is looking forward to showing off the new music building, as well as the newly renovated Kimball Recital Hall, as the academy participants include several incoming Glenn Korff School of Music students.
“It’s great to be able to show off this new building to all of these incoming students and their parents,” he said. “I think everybody will receive a creative energy boost, and that’s exciting.”
