Piano Teacher Conference

Colleen Athparia is an internationally recognized pianist and recording artist with ten CDs to her name. She has toured as a performer and guest instructor from Mexico to Taiwan, Russia, Israel, Brazil, and the Far East. A renowned teacher, her studio features many extremely talented students, two of whom were listed in CBC’s Top 30 Classical musicians in Canada and one in BBC Music Magazine’s six best child-prodigies in 2016. In 2017 she was honoured nationally by the Royal Conservatory as a Teacher of Distinction. A frequent guest on CBC Radio, Athparia has been heralded by the National Post as one of the top four Canadian pianists of contemporary music today.

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Allen Reiser has performed with various orchestras in England and Canada, and recital engagements have taken him to nearly every major centre in Western Canada. He is also active throughout Western Canada as an adjudicator and clinician, and has presented workshops and recitals for local, provincial, and national Registered Music Teachers’ Associations. His first released CD, “A Canadian Piano Album”, was nominated for a 2001 Prairie Music Award in the category of Outstanding Classical Recording. He has been honoured by Calgary’s Mount Royal University with a Distinguished Faculty/Teaching Award (1992), and by the Royal Conservatory of Music with a Teacher of Distinction Award (2020).

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Kathy Dornian is a nationally respected pedagogue, chamber musician, adjudicator, and RCM examiner. Since 1985, Kathy has served on faculty at Mount Royal Conservatory where she pursues an extensive and versatile career as a musician. For many years, she served as piano coordinator of the Academy of Music, a prestigious and nationally renowned program for gifted young musicians. She travels throughout Canada and the US as an adjudicator, workshop clinician, and senior examiner for the RCM. In 2019, Kathy was awarded the prestigious national Teacher of Distinction award by the Royal Conservatory of Music.

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