Teaching Activities

alexander-j-schwarzkopf-MusicWorks-Asheville-NC-2014

Music for children

MusicWorks!

MusicWorks! is an intensive artistic and social program inspired by Venezuela’s El Sistema, offered after school in the city of Asheville, North Carolina, to children in underserved populations that uses music education as a transformative and empowering tool to teach life skills. Alexander gave a workshop and demonstration of the piano through a performance of several Steinbach “Figures,” an interactive performance of Mozart’s “Twinkle Variations” and Piano Concerto No.9 with members from the Asheville Symphony Orchestra. Alexander believes that children learn best when they engage all of their senses, and he invited them to the piano to see the hammers, feel the vibrations and listen to the tones close up. The kids loved it!

Coop Family Center

Alexander collaborates with teachers and staff at the Coop Family Center in Eugene, Oregon, to incorporate music exploration into the classrooms. Through constructing musical instruments, experimenting with materials and different devices, textures and sounds, he has watched the children develop greater sensitivity and awareness of their surroundings and delight in making music and inspired art.

University of New Mexico

Visiting Artist Faculty (Fall Semester 2013)

Faculty Artist Lecture Recital and New Mexico Debut of Schwarzkopf visual art on Steinbach “Figures: 17 Choreographic Etudes for Piano” (2006)

Outreach Activities in Albuquerque Public Schools with Dr. David Schepps

Internationales Klavierfestival-Lindlar

Faculty Teaching Assistant; workshops in piano literature; Lecture Recital on works from Chopin (2010)

Guest Artist Lecture Recital and Workshop on piano literature and piano technique for beginning, intermediate and advanced pianists (2012)

Faculty Teaching Assistant; Workshop titled: “Music Perception: Translating Visual Contours of Melodic Lines into Physical Movements in Piano Technique;” Lecture Recital on Steinbach “Figures” and Germany Debut of Schwarzkopf visual art (2014)

Xcellent Music at AMoCA

Workshop “Musikanten: Ones Who Make Figures” at Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art in Roswell, New Mexico, funded by Anderson Artist-In-Residence Grant

Western Regional Piano Conference and Competition

Competition Jury member

Masterclasses and individual lessons

Conference Lecture: “Memorization through Visualization”

Lecture Recital: Colorado Debut of Schwarzkopf visual art and Steinbach “Figures”

Oregon Music Teacher’s Association

Competition Jury member

Adjudicator for Portland Classical Festival

Adjudicator for Eugene Sonata and Sonatina Festival

Guest Lecture: “Steinbach’s Pedagogy and the Choreographic Etudes” (2010)

Guest Lecture: “Music Perception: Translating Visual Contours of Melodic Lines into Physical Movements in Piano Technique” (Oregon Debut of Schwarzkopf visual art) (2014)

MusicWorks!

Workshop and demonstration of the piano for an El Sistema-based initiative by the Asheville Symphony Orchestra in cooperation with Hall-Fletcher Elementary School

Interactive concert-collaboration with children on Mozart’s “Twinkle Variations”

ARTCORE

Masterclasses for advanced pianists in Casper, Wyoming

University of Oregon

Graduate Teaching Fellow in Pedagogy and Collaborative Piano

University of New Mexico

Teaching Assistant in Piano and Jazz Studies

University of Wyoming

Assistant in Piano Area at Summer Music Camp

Private Studio

Private Studio since 1997 for students varying in age from young students to adult beginners.Some students from my studio have auditioned successfully into college music programs for piano and composition.

Information about piano lessons with Alexander