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News Release

Last modified: Thursday, April 1, 2010

Pianist Dame Fanny Waterman to visit the Jacobs School of Music

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2, 2010

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Jacobs School of Music welcomes one of the world's most celebrated piano teachers, Fanny Waterman, Dame Commander of the British Empire, for a two-day residency that includes master classes that are open to the public.

Waterman jointly founded the Leeds International Piano Competition and has been artistic director of the competition since then. Her work as a teacher and publisher of piano training books has led to more than 2 million students using her "Me and My Piano" series. Waterman was director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Piano Performance at Leeds College of Music until 2006.

Dame Waterman master classes will take place in the Musical Arts Center lobby Tuesday, April 6, and Wednesday, April 7, from noon-2 p.m. She will offer a public lecture in the same location on Tuesday at 4 p.m.

Waterman was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1971 and became a Commander of the British Empire in 1999. She has received honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Leeds and the University of York, the Distinguished Musician Award from the Incorporated Society of Musicians in 2001 (joining Sir Simon Rattle, Sir William Walton and Jacqueline du Pré) and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Federation of International Music Competitions in 2002.

Waterman's extraordinary success as a teacher stems from her concentration on security of technique within a world of imagination and musicianship. She encourages her students' sense of excitement by working with them on their imaginative abilities. Her teaching skills have taken her to television audiences through a 10-master class series titled "Fanny Waterman's Piano Progress" that was was screened on the British-based Channel 4 in the 1980s.

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