Dr. Melanie Foster Taylor, NCTM
Associate Professor of Piano
Piano Pedagogy
melanie.taylor@converse.edu
864-596-9594
Blackman Music Hall, Room 207

A champion of contemporary music, Dr. Melanie Foster Taylor’s performance activities include a lecture-recital series titled “Twentieth-Century Piano Scores,” covering the entire pantheon of 20th-Century music in 20-year segments. In 2006, she will present a recital of piano music published from 2000-2005. She is also the pianist for Ensemble Radieuse, a flute, oboe, and piano trio based at Converse College who recently produced a CD, “Inbox,” featuring contemporary; works for this ensemble. Dr. Taylor has been a featured soloist with the Converse Wind Ensemble and the Brass Quintet, and is in demand as a collaborative pianist by vocalists and instrumentalists.

Dr. Taylor's students have distinguished themselves in statewide, divisional, and Young artist competitions. She has promoted performance opportunities for young pianists by establishing numerous composer festivals, concerto competitions, and piano camps. As the faculty advisor for Converse’s student chapter of the South Carolina Music Teachers Association, the “Petrie Pedagoddesses” activities include administration of the annual PianOlympics event for the Alia Lawson Pre-College piano students, performance of a benefit recital for the Tsunami victims, and active participation in the SCMTA annual conference.

Dr. Taylor is an active clinician for the Music Teachers National Association, holds national Certification by that organization, and appeared as Clinician for the Vermont Music Teachers Association state conference in 2004. She has lectured for the College Music Society and the Society for Music Theory and has had articles published in the American Music Teacher, Keyboard Companion, The Piano Quarterly, and Journal Seamus. Dr. Taylor has been the Intermediate-Advanced Keyboard Editor for Alfred Publishing Company, working closely with Maurice Hinson on numerous publications. Dr. Taylor has enjoyed coaching the Converse Piano Team, created a Piano Pedagogy Resource Laboratory, and instituted the Music=Link program to provide piano lessons for community students who are gifted but in need.

Melanie Foster Taylor holds degrees in Piano Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Marshall University, and the Doctor of Music in Piano Pedagogy and Literature from Indiana University. Her teachers include John Perry, Alfonso Montecino, Kenneth Marchant, and Michel Béroff. Her recital was broadcast on the National Public Radio “Music from Oberlin” series. She was the youngest winner in both the Amateur and Professional divisions of the Young Artist Competition of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra.