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Ellen Price Elder
About Ellen
Dr. Ellen Price Elder is Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Southern Mississippi. She has performed throughout the United States and South America as soloist, collaborator, and masterclass clinician. Her college and pre-college students receive numerous awards and honors for their performance.
She holds a D.M.A. in Piano Pedagogy and Performance and a M.M. in Piano Performance and Literature from the University of Michigan. She received her B.M. in Piano Performance from the University of Southern Mississippi. She has served on the faculties of the University of Michigan, the University of Michigan-Dearborn, Eastern Michigan University, Schoolcraft College, and William Carey University. She has taught on the summer piano faculties of the Encontro Internacional de Pianistas de Piracicaba, University of Michigan All-State Program at Interlochen, the University of Michigan Summer Arts Institute, the FestivalSouth Piano Concerto Academy, and the University of South Alabama Piano Camp.
Dr. Elder was the first place winner of the Ann Arbor Society for the Musical Arts Competition and the Lansing Matinee Musicale Competition, and second place winner of the Memphis International Beethoven Sonata Competition. In March 2010, she was selected to compete in the 7th International J. S. Bach Competition in Würzburg, Germany, and was one of thirty-seven pianists chosen to compete in the 2006 Johann Sebastian Bach International Competition in Leipzig.
She is the recipient of the Joanne A. Smith Piano Pedagogy Award for class piano teaching (for two consecutive years). In 2009, she was selected to receive the HEADWAE Award (Higher Education Appreciation Day/Working for Academic Excellence).
She has been featured as soloist with the University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, the University of Michigan Philharmonia Orchestra, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, the Mississippi Symphony Chamber Orchestra, the University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, and the Hattiesburg City Band.