Camerata Musica 
Sat., September 22, 2018
September 22, 2018 7:30 pm at Columbia Basin College, Performing Arts Theatre
Program
STRAUSS II/DOHNANYI Schatzwalzer from "Der Zigeunerbaron"
F. HAYDN Sonata in E-flat, Hob. 52
F. GULDA Variations on “Light My Fire”
(intermission)
T. LESCHETIZSKY Andante Finale from Lucia di Lammermoor, for Left Hand
S. RACHMANINOFF Sonata in B-flat minor, Op. 36
About the Musician
Filipino-American pianist Jovanni-Rey V. de Pedro has developed an international reputation as a soloist, collaborator, pedagogue, speaker, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
Coming from a family of musicians whose musical heritage dates back more than a century, Jovanni has appeared to public acclaim in recital and academic venues on five continents including London’s St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Eroica-Saal in Vienna, and the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. Jovanni has received numerous prizes in competitions in the United States, Canada, Spain, England, Austria, and Greece, including the Isabelle Bond Gold Medal for Performance Excellence, first place at the Pacific International Competition, and second place at the Ibiza International Competition.
Jovanni’s academic research and pedagogical interests have led to presentations for the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) and its state and local affiliates, the College Music Society (CMS), and the European Piano Teachers Association/World Piano Teachers Association in Serbia. He has also been featured as a keynote speaker and recitalist for the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference, and the Music Teachers Association of Queensland’s Alan Lane Memorial Workshops in Australia.
A recipient of the 2017 Steinway Top Teacher Award, Jovanni's mission as a pedagogue is to develop pianists and teachers who are intelligent, creative, disciplined, reflective, and communicative. In addition to helping students reach their full potential as sensitive musicians, he is passionate about the growth of professional skills. In 2012, he received national recognition for spearheading the formation of the Piano Pedagogy Symposium, a conference by college students for college students. This MTNA event has since brought together hundreds of young music professionals to share creative ideas, network, and develop skills as scholars, presenters, thinkers, performers, entrepreneurs, and teachers. Jovanni is also a founding member of the Young Professionals Track at the MTNA National Conference, and currently serves as in MTNA’s Special Committee on Young Professionals and committees for the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy.
Whether it be collaborating with engineers to perform at a University of Idaho football game on a spinning piano with the Vandal Marching Band, or teaming up with Millsaps College’s award-winning community service program to bring piano lessons to adults from impoverished areas of Jackson, Jovanni can be continuously seen seeking ways to reach a wider audience, further music and music education, and give back to the community. Over the years, he has helped raise more than $100,000 for dozens of civic and religious organizations such as the Alay Sa Kabataan (Gift of the Children) Foundation in the Philippines, the Filipino Catholic Chaplaincy of Vienna, Grace House Mississippi, and the Austrian-American Council West.
A California native and alumni of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA), Jovanni holds a Diplom (with auszeichnung) from the Vienna Conservatory’s Konzertfach Abteilung in Austria where his studies were supported by the ASCAP/Leiber & Stoller Foundations. He received a Master of Music degree in Performance Studies from Trinity College of Music in London, and earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Pedagogy and Performance from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!). After teaching appointments at Millsaps College in Mississippi, Levine School of Music in Washington D.C., and the University of Idaho, Jovanni joined the faculty at Samford University’s School of the Arts as Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy.
Now a mentor to his own students, “Dr. J” is grateful for his teachers and people who have positively impacted his life - namely his parents (his dad was his first piano teacher), Gloria Ho-Sims, Vilma Posadas, Robert Ward, Gerhard Geretschläger, Aries Caces, Yonty Solomon, Mikhail Kazakevich, Deniz Arman Gelenbe, Louis Nagel, and John Ellis.
For more information, please visit www.jdepedro.com