2014 IPPEC Examiner
Dr. Garik Pedersen
Eastern Michigan UniversityGarik Pedersen is currently in his 25th year as professor of piano at Eastern Michigan University, where he has taught undergraduate and graduate students from many U.S. states and 11 other countries, producing prizewinners in national and international¡Xas well as numerous regional and state--competitions. Pedersen, a Steinway artist, has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and in Europe, Canada, Central America, Taiwan and the Philippine Islands. Canada, Central America, Taiwan and the Philippine Islands. Recent appearances have included Steinway Hall, New York City, Cleveland¡¦s International Music Festival, Michigan¡¦s Gilmore Festival, and the Isidor Bajic Music School in Novi Sad, Serbia. Pedersen has recorded for the Albany and Hornblower labels, and can be heard in the recorded musical examples for McGraw-Hill¡¦s popular text Music in Theory and Practice. He has presented programs for the U.S. State Department, the National Federation of Music Clubs, Music Teachers National Association, the European Piano Teachers Association, Canadian Federation of Music Teachers Associations, and the Royal Conservatory of Music, as well as on numerous public television and radio broadcasts.
Dr. Pedersen has performed and taught at many summer music festivals, including Cleveland¡¦s International Music Festival, Spokane¡¦s Musicfest Northwest, the World Piano Conference (Serbia), Tunghai Summer Music Festival (Taiwan), Michigan¡¦s Interlochen Arts Camp and Blue Lake Arts Festival, and other music camps and festivals in Arizona, Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, Kentucky, and Indiana. He has served as an adjudicator for piano competitions in nineteen states.
A student of Wesley True at the University of Central Missouri, which awarded him its Distinguished Alumnus in Music in 2010, he was the final DMA piano student of John Simms at the University of Iowa, graduating in 1986. Other major influences have been Gyorgy Sebok, Eugene Bossart, and Edwin E. Gordon. Before Gary is the current president of Michigan Music Teachers Association.