| Frances Ellis
Schwemmer is currently on staff at Ars Nova as an
instructor of piano. She also maintains a private piano studio in
Huntsville where she has taught for over thirty years. She teaches
beginning piano students at age 5 or 6 through the advanced senior high
school level. She enters students in the AMTA district and state
auditions, having had consecutive state winners for the past
thirty-three years. She has participated on the state AMTA convention
program for over ten years and has had winners perfom in the solo and
concerto division or both. She enters students in the National Guild of
Piano Students and the Federation. Many
students have entered concerto competitions in Huntsville, The Shoals
Area, Tuscaloosa and Montgomery Symphony Auditions. Twenty students have
performed concerti with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra and eight have
performed with the Huntsville Youth Orchestra. Several students have won
awards in composition. Nineteen students have performed on the Alabama
Public Television program, "Pianist At Work" during the past 4 years.
Many students were selected to perform on the closing concert of the
Crimson Music camp during the past twenty-five years.
More than forty former students have studied
piano in college as their major or minor. Former students include many
private piano teachers, several accompanists, many church musicians, as
well as one female orchestra conductor.
Mrs. Schwemmer has been a clinician and an
adjudicator for district and state-level competitions in piano in
Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida and Tennessee. She is a member
and has held offices in the following organizations: Huntsville Piano
Teachers Forum. Huntsville Music Teachers Association, Huntsville Music
Study Club, The Music Appreciation Group, Huntsville Youth Orchestra
Board, the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra Guild, as well as the AMTA
(local and state).
Mrs. Schwemmer states, "I want to teach musical
independence. Students must be able to learn new pieces without a
teacher at some point during the piano study. Students need to
understand the basic fundamentals of piano study as well as learn to
give an accurate reading of the musical score. In the early years I
stress learning to read in rhythm and in later years I ask for more
details and refinement in their playing. All students must work in all
styles of music as well as keyboard theory and technique." |
