EDUCATOR & PERFORMER

Dr. Thomas J. Parente is Associate Professor of Piano at Westminster Choir College of Rider University and composer in residence for the Unitarian Congregation of Montclair. A teacher training clinician, Dr. Parente has presented workshops and clinics nationally and internationally including those at the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the Gina Bachauer Piano Festival, the Dalcroze International Summer School of Australia, the National Piano Pedagogy Convention, the Delaware State Music Teachers Convention, Westminster Choir Summer Session, Montclair State University, Towson State University, The World Piano Pedagogy Conference (Portoroz, Slovenia), International Society of Music Education (Thessaloniki, Bologna, and Tenerife), the Paris International Conference on Education, Economy & Society (Honolulu), Texas Tech University piano dept., the Brazilian University Piano Teachers Conference, GP3 Group Piano Conference in Austin, Texas and conferences in Seattle, Quebec, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Coventry University, England. He has given book presentations for the University bookstores of Harvard, and Princeton, for the Piano Department of the Real Conservatorio de Musica, Madrid and New England Conservatory. He did a similar presentation last March for the piano department at the Universidad Catolica de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

PUBLICATIONS

Dr. Parente’s publications include articles in such journals as the “Piano Pedagogy Forum”, and “Clavier Companion”. His piano pedagogy book, devoted to the art of piano practicing and entitled “The Positive Pianist: How Flow Can Bring Passion to Practice and Performance” was published by Oxford University Press in 2015. He has also written two piano pedagogical texts -“Essential Materials for Class Piano” (Linus 2015) and “How to Teach Group Piano Successfully Through Flow” (Linus, 2009). He has authored a series of three piano books entitled “Awaken Your Passion for Music through the Piano” that are currently available through Amazon (Create Space, 2013). He is a contributing author of two college textbook choral series, “Experiencing Choral Music” and the “Choral Rehearsal” (Hal Leonard and Gia Publishers respectively).

COMPOSITIONS

His compositional output is varied and includes works for singers, solo piano, piano duo, choir, strings, and for piano trio. Several of his compositions have received notable performances. Perhaps most prominent was a concert that was entirely devoted to his works that took place at the conservatory of music on November 29th, 2019 in Parana, Argentina. The program consisted of three of his art songs, three piano duets in which he played the secondo part, and six of his choral works in which he conducted two. The concert was presented under the auspices of El Coro Gaudii and their director Evangelina Burchardt who performed Parente’s choral music. Other notable concerts include renderings of two of his piano trios by the Hobart Trio in a concert which took place last March in Princeton, performances last Fall of his art songs by soprano Robin Massie and bass baritone William Amory and a performance of his choral works by the National Chorale under Everett McCorvey at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, in November of 2015. Next month the Harmonium Choral Society of Madison, NJ, under the direction of Anne Matlack will premiere his “I Am In Need of Music” (text by Elizabeth Bishop). His composition teachers have included Robert Moevs, Rolv Yttrehus, George Walker and Ludmila Ulehla among others.

PIANO TEACHERS

He is grateful to the following master piano teachers with whom he has studied: Anne Schein, Edna Golandsky, Arminda Canteros, Eleanor Hancock, Alan Feinberg, Madame Genia Robinor, Vladzia Mashke, Stelio Dubbiosi, and Jeanine Dowis.