Yulia Kalashnikova

Piano

Yulia Kalashnikova grew up in a family of musicians in the heart of Russia. Her father plays viola in the local orchestra, and her mother is a piano teacher. Ms. Kalashnikova began her musical studies at age 5, and graduated in 1998 from Kazan State Conservatory in Kazan, Russia with Masters Degrees in piano performance, chamber ensemble, piano instruction, and accompaniment. Her principle teachers were Evgenia Zinger, who has since immigrated to the United States and teaches at the Manhattan School of Music; Alfia Burnashyva, one of the preeminent piano teachers in Russia today; and Uzefina Sokolskaya.

Prior to immigrating to Omaha in March of 2001, Ms. Kalashnikova was an accompanist at Kazan State Conservatory and a faculty member of the I.S. Palantai Music College. In addition to being part of Omaha Conservatory of Music’s piano faculty, she is also the accompanist for the Omaha Children’s Chorus.

Kathy Knebel

Suzuki Piano

Kathy Knebel is a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she studied with the Norwegian pianist, Audun Ravnan.  She earned both a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Master of Music Degree in Piano Performance.  She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa as an undergraduate student and held graduate assistantships in both accompanying and class piano teaching  
She accompanied for the University of Nebraska Singers for three years under the direction of Dr. G. Edward Bruner.  
After graduation, Kathy began her study of the Suzuki Piano Method with outstanding Master Teachers, including Bruce Anderson and Cathy Williams-Hargrave.  She taught privately in Omaha for 15 years.  In June 2001, Kathy moved to Plano, TX to do additional pedagogy training with Cathy Williams-Hargrave.  She taught for one year at the Suzuki Institute of Dallas before resuming private teaching.  

While in Texas, Kathy had the opportunity to attend workshops and to study privately with Ms. Sheila Paige.  Ms. Paige is known nationally for her work with pianists who have suffered piano related injuries.  Kathy was also an Associate Faculty Member at Collin Creek Community College where she taught class piano and accompanied for vocal music students and musical theatre performances.

Kathy has recently returned to Omaha where she will be developing a Suzuki Piano Studio at the Omaha Conservatory of Music.

Anne Madison

Piano

Pianist Anne Madison has performed throughout Europe and recorded works included on six compact discs.  After earning Bachelor and Master of Music degrees with distinction from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Baylor University, she continued her studies in one of the world’s great cities of music, receiving an Artist Diploma from the Vienna Conservatory in Vienna, Austria, where she concertized regularly as a soloist and as a collaborator with Vienna Philharmonic hornist Roland Horvath.

Since returning to the United States, Madison has performed with several internationally recognized violin recitalists and appeared on concert series in Birmingham, England, Vienna, Austria, and in the Midwest.  In recent years, Madison has taught on the faculty of the Carinthia International Piano Academy in Klagenfurt, Austria and the Tyrolean International Piano Academy in Innsbruck, Austria.  She was also a featured soloist with Orchestra Omaha, performing Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto on the final concert of its 10th anniversary season.

Madison is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music and is active as a clinician, speaker, and adjudicator.  She serves as Chair of the Piano Department at Omaha Conservatory of Music, where she has been a member of the artist faculty since 2001.

Dr. Boban Martic

Piano

Boban Martic holds a Doctorate in piano performance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He received his Bachelor of Arts (2002) and Master of Arts (2005) in piano performance at University of Arts in Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, and Master of Music in piano performance at Syracuse University (2006). A native of Belgrade, Serbia, Dr. Martic has earned many high graduate honors such as Eloise K. Heaton Graduate Fellowship and Hira Poncha Memorial Award from Syracuse University School of Music as an outstanding music student. He was also first place winner of the European Pedagogy Teaching Association competition in Serbia (2003), won third place at the II Isidor Bajic Piano Memorial in Novi Sad (2004), winner of the Syracuse University Orchestra Concerto Competition (2005) as well as earning numerous prestigious prizes in Serbia as an undergraduate competitor. Boban Martic has studied piano with renowned pianists and professors such as Ninoslav Živković, Wei-Yi Yang, Steven Heyman, Paul Barnes and Mark Clinton.  He has also performed in masterclasses for many renowned pianists, such as Claude Frank, Paul Gulda, Melvin Tan, and Dorian Leljak. While at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Boban Martic served as Dr. Mark Clinton’s studio assistant, the highest teaching responsibility given to a D.M.A. student.

Dr. Karen Sigers

Piano

Karen Sigers holds a Doctorate in piano performance and was a founding member of the internationally famed Bridge Ensemble. The group’s nine years of touring and festival successes included the honor of recording their world class commission, Giya Kancheli’s “Piano Quartet in l’istesso tempo” on ECM. She has performed all over the world, including Madrid, Paris, London, Holland, St. Petersburg, Taiwan, and in Alice Tully Hall, with artists such as Lynn Harrell, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, and Paula Robinson.

Critics say that she “elicits a full range of sonorities from the keyboard with a wonderfully delicate touch when necessary and a beautifully sustained legato,” (Journal American) and that she “add[s] the voice of the piano in all its moods. With finesse and fire, her music could be playful, uplifting or dark and foreboding.” (Athens Daily News) Gerard Schwarz of NY’s ‘Mostly Mozart’ states,
“Everything she touches is a success.”

Karen has been a pianist in musical theatre since the age of 12 and adds directing to her schedule when possible, as well as ongoing vocal coaching and choral music. Highly proficient at sightreading, Dr. Sigers thrives on the variety in her career, and she is experienced at teaching the differences in solo piano, chamber music, and accompanying. She is comfortable with all styles and genres of music and enjoys teaching jazz and pop tunes, as well as classical repertoire.

A native of Georgia, Karen Sigers has been taught by Ralph Votapek, Carlos Corma, and Maria Luisa Faini. She earned her doctorate in piano performance and music theory at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Karen began her study of the Alexander Technique (a method of thinking in relation to movement) in New York, moving to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1985 to concentrate her study of this important work with Marjorie Barstow (1899-1995), the first graduate of Alexander’s first teacher training class in 1931-33. Karen continues to study and practice the Alexander Technique, with Marjorie until 1990, and with Don Weed, Marjorie’s major apprentice, to the present day.

Among many other things, Karen enjoys writing. Her manuscripts include Sound into Light: Dante’s Vision of Celestial Music; and her dissertation, entitled The pianist: His manual technique, his mental technique.  

Download and listen to a recording of Debussy’s Clair de Lune

Program Notes: “Debussy evokes moonlight, the moon, as it moves through the night sky, the night clouds. The Suite itself is yet in his late romantic writing, but the delicacy of Clair de Lune is a precursor to impressionism’s brushstrokes. The ending speaks to me of the very last beam of moonlight, as it slips behind an opaque cloud, or disappears in that mysterious time between night and day.” - Karen Sigers

Ginastera Piano Sonata #2, Finale: ‘Ostinato aymara’

“The tour de force in the middle of this fascinating program was Karen Sigers’ playing of Alberto Ginastera’s Piano Sonata, no. 2. It’s a piece with dense, dissonant harmonies, clusters upon clusters of chords in the first and last movements, shimmery effects with plenty of pedal in the middle one, and at the end of both first and last, a demented onslaught on the piano. Sigers sailed through its difficulties. She performed from inside the piece, bringing out its sensuousness and its shape, and her playing was always assured, clean, and amazingly relaxed.” - Philippa Kiraly, ‘Eastsideweek’