Catharine Lysinger
Senior lecturer, Piano Pedagogy and Piano, Artistic Director, Piano Preparatory Department
Dr. Lysinger is Director of the Piano Preparatory Department and a senior lecturer in piano pedagogy and piano in the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Since her arrival at SMU in 2004, Dr. Lysinger has gained enthusiastic praise for her energetic leadership of SMU’s celebrated piano preparatory department and for her expert guidance of the graduate teaching assistants who provide a significant portion of the instruction for the preparatory students. Her students have won top prizes in state, national, and international competition. In 2009, the Piano Preparatory Department was invited to present students in performance at the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy in Chicago.
In 2008, Dr. Lysinger created the National Piano Institute for Young Artists in collaboration with Dr. David Karp and in celebration of the 25th National Piano Teachers Institute. A collaborative effort with her colleagues as well as current and former graduate students in the piano and piano pedagogy departments, the Institute draws internationally-known pedagogues, performers, and composers to SMU each summer to work with teachers and students from around the country. Dr. Lysinger was formerly the founding Director of the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music Preparatory and Continuing Studies Department.
Catharine Lysinger has been a prizewinner in national and international piano competitions, winning first prize in the Music Teacher National Association National Young Artist Competition, the Shreveport Symphony Wideman Competition, and third in the Corpus Christi International Young Artist Competition. She has performed as soloist with numerous symphony orchestras including the Filarmónica de Jalisco (Guadalajara, Mexico), the Houston Civic Symphony, and the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. In 2006, Catharine’s collaboration with colleague Dr. Carol Leone led to performances in the US and Europe and to the Second Prize in the Vietri-Sul-Mare International Piano Competition for Duo-Pianists in Italy.
Catharine received the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance at the University of Houston as a student of Nancy Weems. She is an active soloist, chamber musician, lecturer and adjudicator and serves on the guest faculties of the Summer Music Institute hosted by UT-San Antonio as well as the University of Houston Piano Institute for Intermediate Grades.
Education
D.M.A. Musical Arts, University of Houston
Master of Music, University of HoustonLinks