University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Linda Christensen

Dr. Linda Christensen teaches piano and music technology at Wayne State College. She is a frequent presenter at MTNA and NCKP, and has been published in Keyboard Companion and Piano Pedagogy Forum.

Andrew Cooperstock

Heralded as a “technically impeccable and musically profound” pianist, Dr. Andrew Cooperstock performs widely as soloist and chamber musician and has appeared throughout five continents and in most of the fifty states.

Winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs Artist Competition and the New Orleans International Piano Competition, Andrew Cooperstock has performed at New York’s Alice Tully, Merkin, and Weill concert halls, and at the United Nations. He has been featured in recitals and concerto appearances at the Chautauqua, Brevard, and Round Top international music festivals, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, and in such global centers as Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, New Orleans, Minneapolis, Baltimore, London, Hamburg, Nice, the Hague, Riga, Canberra, Lima, Kiev, Beijing, Seoul, Sapporo, and Vladivostok.

An advocate for new music, Andrew Cooperstock has premiered works by such American composers as Lowell Liebermann and Aaron Copland. He has also commissioned works by Robert Starer and Dan Welcher.

Andrew Cooperstock serves as chair of the keyboard department at the University of Colorado. In addition to his concerts with Opus Two he has the distinction of having performed as soloist or chamber player in most of the fifty states. He has also given lectures and recitals at the Hochschule für Musik Hans Eisler in Berlin, Germany, the Academy of Music in Riga, Latvia, and the Universities of Bordeaux and Nice in France, among others.

Barbara Fast

Dr. Barbara Fast, Keyboard Department Chair, coordinates the group piano program as well as teaches undergraduate and graduate piano pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma. She co-originated the National Group Piano/Piano Pedagogy Forum held for the first time in 2000 with the second Forum scheduled for 2004. She also serves as Associate Editor of Piano Pedagogy Forum, the first keyboard journal on the WEB, and has presented workshops on historical keyboard pedagogy and technology topics at Music Teachers National Conferences, World Piano Pedagogy Conferences, International and National College Music Society Conferences and the European Piano Teachers Conference. Additionally she has performed in chamber settings in England, Russia, Japan and Korea, as well as presented lecture recitals and master classes throughout the United States. Dr. Fast previously served as Keyboard Chair and Associate Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Northern Iowa.

Linda Holzer

Dr. Linda Holzer is associate professor of piano at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. An active soloist and chamber musician, she has appeared in concert at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, and New York Public Radio Station WNYC-FM as well as abroad in Hong Kong, Vienna and Bratislava. As an author, Holzer has published articles in Clavier, Piano & Keyboard, and American Music Teacher, as well as online in Piano Pedagogy Forum and The Piano Education Page. She teaches courses in performance, pedagogy, music theory, and careers.

Trudy Kincade

Trudy Kincade, teaches in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Music Department, accompanies the UALR applied students, and holds the position of Coordinator of the UALR Community School of the Arts’ Piano Program. She is a frequent clinician in accompanying and sight reading and serves as an adjudicator for piano competitions throughout the state of Arkansas.

In 2002, Ms. Kincade accompanied guest artist, Nmon Ford, baritone, in lecture demonstrations at UALR and Parkview Arts & Music Magnet High School. This was followed by an evening Artspree Concert. Ms. Kincade is also a harpsichordist and an accomplished horsewoman. She is profoundly dedicated to her students and to creating an outstanding learning environment.

Joann Kirchner

Dr. Joann Kirchner is coordinator of the secondary piano program at Temple University in Philadelphia. She has presented nationally for musicians and medical doctor organizations and has been published in American Music Teacher on the topic of performance anxiety.

Pamela Pike

Dr. Pamela Pike is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where she has coordinated the group-piano program for the past six years. In addition to teaching piano classes, Dr. Pike teaches applied piano, music theory, undergraduate and graduate courses in piano pedagogy, serves as the Director of the UALR Performing Arts Series, Artspree. Pike has established a successful community-outreach program at the university called the “3rd-Age Piano Program. Pike has been published in Keyboard Companion, American Music Teacher, Proceedings from MTNA Pedagogy Saturday III, and had her paper entitled “Cognition, Individual Learning Styles and Engaging Every Student in the Group-Piano Class” published in the Proceedings of the 27th World Conference of the International Society of Music Education (2006). Pike has been invited and presented papers at several prestigious international conferences including the Hawaii International Conference on the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the International Society for Music Education World Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and at national MTNA conferences, the Group Piano – Piano Pedagogy Forum, CMS, and for various state MTA conferences. Pike chairs the adult learning committee of the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy.

Jim Spencer

Jim Spencer was born and raised in Michigan. He joined the UALR Music Department in July of 2004. Prior to his move to Arkansas, Jim owned a large recording studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has worked on projects that range from Domino’s Pizza corporate advertising, music for CBS Sports specials and record projects for ABC and MCA records labels. Projects that he has produced include one Grammy nomination and two Emmy awards. Jim’s whole family is involved in the arts with his wife as Director of Arkansas Art Center and his oldest daughter a music educator in Minnesota.