SEPF Guest Artist Nelita True

Nelita True

Master Teacher and Clinician, Marian Stanley Tucker Guest Lecturer, Professor of Piano, Eastman School of Music

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Since Nelita True made her debut at age seventeen with the Chicago Symphony in Orchestra Hall and her New York debut with the Juilliard Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall, her career has taken her to the major cities of Western and Eastern Europe, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Iceland, New Zealand, Brazil, Australia, Canada, and to Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as to all fifty states in America. She was a visiting professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, performing and conducting master classes and has been in the People’s Republic of China eighteen times for recitals and master classes. She has played recitals on French national television and on Australian national radio. Her most recent recital in Boston was cited as one of the “Ten Best Classical Performances of the Year.”

Ms. True has been a jury member for the China International Piano Competition (Beijing), the Shanghai International Piano Competition the Queen Sonja International Piano Competition (Oslo), the National piano Competition in Brazil, the Horowitz Competition (Kiev), the Concours de Musique in Canada, the PTNA (Tokyo), the Lev Vlassenko Competition in Australia, and the Gina Bachauer, New Orleans, Hilton Head, and William Kapell International Piano Competitions in the U.S, among many others.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Michigan with Helen Titus, Ms. True went on to Juilliard to study with Sascha Gorodnitzki, and then earned the DMA with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory, In Paris, she studied with Nadia Boulanger on a Fulbright grant. Formerly Distinguished Professor at the University of Maryland, Ms. True is currently Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music. Many of her students have won top prizes at national and international competitions, including an unprecedented five First Prizes in national MTNA competitions. Ms. True was awarded the Certificate of Merit by the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, the Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching at Eastman, the 2002 Achievement Award from MTNA, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from National Keyboard Pedagogy Conference (USA).

SH Productions of Kansas City produced a series of four videotapes, “Nelita True at Eastman,” featuring her performances, lectures, and teaching. These videos are currently being seen on five continents. She has been the subject of feature articles in Clavier, Piano Today, The European Piano Teachers’ Journal, and was the subject of the cover story of Keyboard Companion. An interview with Ms. True appears in the latest edition of James Bastien’s “How to Teach Piano Successfully,” along with interviews with the legendary Rosina Lhevinne and Adele Marcus. Ms. True has been invited to record over 100 works for Advance, Mark, Educo, and Academy Records.

“Nelita True’s recital…was an artistic and popular triumph.”
--The Washington Post

“True is an extraordinary pianist and exemplary musician…many a lyric soprano would covet the way (she) can turn a phrase.”
--The Boston Globe

“Listening to Miss True was a memorable experience. Rarely have I heard anything so sublimely poetic.”
--Kansas City Times

More information:

Faculty Bio - Eastman School of Music