BIO
Dr. Madeline Anderson, born in 1995, is currently based in Austin, TX. She holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (BM ‘17), Texas State University (MM ‘19), and the University of Iowa (DMA in Piano Performance and Pedagogy '23). While pursuing her DMA, Anderson studied piano under the tutelage of Dr. Ksenia Nosikova, and piano pedagogy with Dr. Alan Huckleberry. Dr. Anderson's previous piano mentors include Hans Boepple, Dr. Enrico Elisi, Ann Schein, and Dr. Jason Kwak.
One of Dr. Anderson's interests is audience and listener engagement, particularly at live piano performances. Anderson's DMA dissertation centered around active listening and sensory involvement - both literally and conceptually - as a means to heightened engagement, enjoyment, and understanding in listeners. Using sensory involvement as the cornerstone, Anderson developed a listening activity – Attend, Notice, Blend – for this project and was fortunate to conduct a research study at the University of Iowa debuting her listening activity. Results indicated significant overall improvement in the experience of audience members with the listening activity in place.
Music and Wine:
This active listening project spilled over into the realm of music and wine; in 2024 Dr. Anderson started a series at Alexander Vineyards (Frederickberg, TX) and collaborated with Claude Alexander to pair specific taste profiles of wine to certain sounds and chords at the piano. Anderson developed an additional series at the Roosevelt Library in San Antonio entitled "Tasting Notes," which offered a unique taste and music experience to audience members.
She presented Tasting Notes with wine expert Cecilia Barretto.
Dr. Anderson has experience teaching at the college level; she taught Music Theory and Class Piano at Northwest Vista College (Fall 2024) as well as courses at Kirkwood Community College (2022-2023). She held teaching assistantships at Texas State University and the University of Iowa where she taught undergraduate group piano courses of various levels, private piano lessons, and accompanied instrumentalists. During her time in Iowa, Anderson maintained a private piano studio and was on faculty at the University of Iowa Community Music Lesson Program. Anderson previously taught at the FunKey Piano Project (San Marcos, Texas) and MACSA (Musical Arts Center of San Antonio). She currently is on the faculty of the Orpheus Academy of Music (Austin, TX).
Anderson has a passion for sharing music and enjoys staying active with performances in San Antonio, with a focus on community engagement. Her most recent performance, February 2024, involved analysis of the word "dolce" in regards to music interpretation and execution. Audience members were provided with chocolate candies to enjoy during the performance for a complete dolce experience.
Anderson has participated in, and won awards in, numerous piano competitions and events. Most recently, Madeline was named a 2020 MTNA Young Artist Competition state winner (Iowa), won the Third Prize at the Second International PianoArt competition, and was a finalist at the 2020 Sound Espressivo competition. In addition to her solo music endeavors, Madeline is a passionate chamber musician and enjoys collaborating with colleagues.