Dr. Rebecca Shockley, Guest Presenter in 2025

Dr. Shockley is Professor Emerita of Piano Pedagogy at the University of Minnesota. A native of Cincinnati, she grew up in a very musical family. Her parents played in the Cincinnati Symphony – her mother as pianist and her father as violinist – and her older sister and brother both majored in piano and became professional pianists and college professors. She holds degrees in piano performance from Indiana University, an L.R.A.M. from the Royal Academy of Music in London, and a D.M.A. in piano pedagogy from the University of Colorado. She previously taught piano at Eastern Kentucky University before moving to Minnesota in 1986. She has given workshops on mapping and other practice strategies for music teacher organizations and at colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and internationally. Her book, Mapping Music: For Faster Learning and Secure Memory – A Guide for Piano Teachers and Students, was published in 1997, and her newly revised edition of her mother’s memoirs, Is There a Piano in the House? The Life Story and Thoughts of Dorothy Stolzenbach Payne was published by Amazon in 2018.

Tadeusz Majewski, Guest Presenter in 2025

“Chopin: Dances of Poland” is an engaging lecture and demonstration celebrating the Polish soul embedded in Frédéric Chopin’s works. Focusing on the Mazurka and Polonaise, this event delves into the rich folk traditions and aristocratic elegance that inspired these iconic dance forms. Attendees will gain insights into Chopin’s innovative compositional techniques, his emotional connection to his homeland, and the intricate rhythms and expressive phrasing that define his music. The program features live performances illustrating the contrasting moods of the lively Mazurka and the noble Polonaise, offering a deeper appreciation of Chopin’s genius and his profound tribute to Polish heritage. 

Tadeusz Majewski, born in Krakow, Poland and a graduate from the Chopin Conservatoire, has performed throughout the United States, Canada and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. He founded the Frederic Chopin Society of Minnesota, now in its 41st season, and continues to serve as its artistic director.

Dr. Veda Zuponcic, Guest Presenter in 2024

  • Getting your student to AMB (Anna Magdalena Bach) and sonatinas in one year: Technique and Repertoire 
  • How to Get from Here to There:  What repertoire should we teach to bring a student to the Early Advanced literature in Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern style periods.


Born and raised in Aurora, Minnesota, Veda Zuponcic began her piano studies at the age of 5 with Dorothy Crost Bourgin of Virginia, MN, taking the Greyhound bus by herself from Aurora every Friday afternoon, under the watchful eye of the bus drivers. She went on to study at Indiana University with the great pianist and pedagogue Sidney Foster, where she distinguished herself by winning the Concerto Competition and the Performers Certificate, earning Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. Further studies were with Ilona Kabos in New York and London.
Miss Zuponcic made her formal European debut in 1971 as a recipient of a Martha Baird Rockefeller Grant. Critics in London, Vienna, Amsterdam and Berlin noted her “powerful and fluent technique, intelligent interpretations, and her natural affinity for Romantic composers.” London Times. Her recital in London in 1990 prompted this review, also from the London Times: Miss Zuponcic is absolute mistress of Romantic syntax, phrases burgeoning with an effortless rubato. Her successful American debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in 1973 was followed by recital and orchestral performances throughout the United States. Her 1989 recital at Carnegie Recital Hall received this review from the NY Times: Veda Zuponcic played an uncompromisingly difficult piano program on Monday evening at Weill Recital Hall. Miss Zuponcic, who is the head of the music department at Glassboro (N. J.) State College, is a formidable player, with an unwaveringly strong technique, and clear well-considered ideas about the music she played. Her opener, the first performance of Vivian Fine’s ”Toccatas and Arias 1987,” set the tone of the evening. The work requires finger power and concentration. Miss Zuponcic sailed through its thunderous explorations of the keyboard’s full range with clarity and apparent ease.
She has performed hundreds of concerts on four continents, including more than 100 in the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. She has recorded two CDs for Melodiya.
Her first academic position was as Instructor at the Philadelphia Musical Academy. She began her tenure at Glassboro State College/ Rowan University in 1971. She has presented master classes throughout the world, including the Oxford Piano Festival, the Eastman School of Music; Shizuoka (Japan) College; Temple University, Samuel Barber Piano Festival at West Chester University; Cleveland State University; the Barcelona Conservatory, the Porumbesco Conservatory in Moldova, the Kharkov Conservatory in Ukraine; the Belgorod Conservatory in Russia; the Tashkent Conservatory in Uzbekistan; the Zagreb Conservatory; the Ljubljana Conservatory (Slovenia), the Music College of Guangzhou, China; and many others. She was a guest professor at the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory for a semester. She has served on juries of major piano competitions, including the Gina Bachauer Junior and the Gina Bachauer Senior Competitions; the MTNA National Competitions; the Eastman Competition; and many others. Her former collegiate and pre-college students are performing and teaching in educational institutions throughout the world; as well as enjoying music as a lifetime avocation. Nine of her students have reached the National Finals of the MTNA Competitions, several winning prizes at this prestigious competition.
She is in frequent demand as a clinician and speaker, including the MTNA National Conference’s Pedagogy Saturday; and has created several Webinars for MTNA. She was national chairperson for MTNA’s Pedagogy Saturday Artistic Track, for the 2021 MTNA National Conference. Recent presentations included a lecture on Chinese-American Educational Partnerships; and a master class for The Classical Singer/Pianists Competition in Guangzhou, China; and a session on fingerings, “Sleight of Hand” for MTNA National Conference in March 2020 in Chicago. (cancelled due to Covid.) She founded and was Artistic Director of the Hollybush Festival at Rowan between 1981 and 1990, producing the Soviet-American season in 1987 which brought the Kirov Ballet to the Glassboro Campus.

She is currently the Artistic Director of the Northern Lights Music Festival in Aurora, MN, which produces professional opera, chamber and symphonic music each month of July; in addition to an integrated summer music school for gifted young people. She was one of 40 persons inaugurated into the Steinway and Sons Teacher’s Hall of Fame in October, 2019.
She is charmed and honored that the beautiful auditorium in the Aurora High School (Mesabi East) has been named the Veda Zuponcic Auditorium as a result of her years of bringing classical music and opera to our hometown region of the Mesabi Range in northern MInnesota.

Dr. Vanessa Cornett, Guest Presenter in 2023

The Riddle of the Pianist’s Paradox

All artistic performers crave peak performance experiences. And yet, the world of performance is itself a world of contradictions. On stage, we simultaneously seek control and surrender, elation and composure, power and grace. Mindfulness can help us understand and navigate this artistic paradox. This session explores the intersection of sport psychology and contemplative practices for performing artists seeking to manage their performance anxiety and develop greater confidence on stage and off. We will focus especially on the dual mindsets of successful performers and on the development of strong mental skills for effective practice and optimal performance.

Vanessa Cornett is the Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy and Director of Keyboard Studies at the University of St. Thomas. She is author of the book, The Mindful Musician: Mental Skills for Peak Performance (Oxford University Press, 2019). Her work has also been published in the Journal of Contemplative Inquiry, International Journal of Music Education, Journal of Transformative Education, Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, Music and Politics, College Music Symposium, American Music Teacher, the MTNA eJournal, Clavier Companion, The Canadian Music Teacher / Le Professeur de Musique Canadien, and in the textbook Creative Piano Teaching. She has performed or presented in 23 of the United States and in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Taiwan, Argentina, Greece, Croatia, Serbia, Finland, Spain, Ireland, and the U.K. She presents frequently at national conferences of the Music Teachers National Association, the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, and the College Music Society. She has also appeared at the World Piano Conference, International Society of Music Education World Congress, International Conference on Spirituality and Music Education, International Conference of the Arts in Society, Annual Symposium of the Performing Arts Medical Association, the Centre for the Study of International Governance, and at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum. In 2019 she completed a faculty residency in Turkey sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, and during the pandemic she was a virtual performance coach for musicians in Lagos, Nigeria. In 2021 she was named the Jane Frazee Distinguished Scholar-Artist at the University of St. Thomas. She is a certified meditation instructor with a special interest in performance anxiety management for musicians. She has lectured and published widely on the intersection of contemplative practices and sport psychology, including peak performance, stress management, integrative spirituality, and the mental health and well-being of musicians.

Dr. Paul Shaw, Guest Presenter in 2023

Creative Pedaling

Hailed by The New York Times as “both a virtuoso with herculean technical command and a sensitive introspective artist,” Jamaican-born pianist Dr. Paul Shaw, a top prize-winner in the William Kapell International Piano Competition and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, has performed to high critical acclaim at prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York; the Kennedy Center and the Hall of the Americas in Washington, D.C.; Beethovenhalle in Bonn; the Manoel Theatre in Valletta, Malta; Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica in San José; and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. 

Dr. Shaw has appeared as soloist with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, Dayton Philharmonic, Richmond Symphony, Shreveport Symphony, Cape Cod Symphony, Kenwood Symphony and Minnesota orchestras and collaborated with conductors Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, William Eddins, George Manahan, Jorge Mester, Lukas Foss, Mark Russell Smith, Pamela Mayorga, Yuri Ivan and others. As a chamber musician, he has appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival and performed with members of the Minnesota and Saint Paul Chamber orchestras.

Since 2010, Shaw and musician friends from Japan, China, South Korea, France, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States of America have been engaged in a series of collaborative concerts to promote world peace and discourage the proliferation of nuclear weapons – in New York (2010), Hiroshima (2013), Paris (2014), Tokyo (2015), and again in Hiroshima (2016) and Paris (2018).

Paul Shaw was educated at The Juilliard School, on full scholarship, where he earned the Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Piano Performance under the tutelage of William Masselos. He is Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Minnesota School of Music, and a Steinway Artist.

Paul Shaw can be heard on compact disc in solo recitals of classical music: Live from New York, It’s Paul Shaw; Caribbean Art Music: Le Grand Tour, featured on a WQXR worldwide web-cast; and in a release on the Clarion label playing James P. Johnson’s Yamekraw: A Negro Rhapsody for piano solo and orchestra.