Presentation and Master Class

Dr. Jeanette Louise Yaryan, piano

April 7, 2023 at 1–3 p.m.

Winifred Smith Concert Hall

On Friday, April 7, Dr. Jeanette Louise Yaryan, will give a piano master class for the CTSA music department students. Assistant Head of School and on the piano faculty at Idyllwild Arts Academy, Yaryan is an accomplished soloist as well as an internationally renowned educator. She has been an invited pedagogue in China, Australia, and the UK and has also presented at international conferences in Malaysia, Italy, Brazil, Scotland, and England. The class will be held in Winifred Smith Hall, 1-3 p.m., and is free and open to the public. Students will perform works by Beethoven and Schubert.

Dr. Jeanette Louise Yaryan holds two MM degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music (MM Solo Piano ’03, MM Collaborative Piano ’04) and a DMA in Piano Performance from the University of Southern California (’09). Mentors include Norman Krieger, John Perry, Morten Lauridsen, Frederick Lesemann, Kathryn Brown, Anita Pontremoli, Caroline Oltmanns, Elizabeth Pastor, and Yuki Mack. Summer festivals offered her performances and study in Nancy, France, and Vienna, Austria. A frequent competition prizewinner, she performed Liszt’s Totentanz with the USC Symphony in 2008, and Ravel’s Concerto in G with the Dana Symphony Orchestra in 1999. Professional endeavors have included performing at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and Boston Court Theatre in Los Angeles. An accomplished soloist, she is also passionate about multidisciplinary performances, and enjoys incorporating varied elements in her work as an artist, including her original spoken word and musical arranging. One of her groundbreaking shows, Gods and Monsters, included collaboration with bassist Marshall Hawkins and visual artist David Reid-Marr, on an original conceptual piece addressing systemic racism in the United States.

Yaryan is an avid chamber musician, particularly with her group, Definiens, which is based in Los Angeles. Featured in Gramophone magazine, Definiens has won multiple grants and recognition, including being ensemble-in-residence at Fresno’s New Music Festival, Cal State Long Beach’s student composer concert, and UCLA. Definiens first performed on Idyllwild Arts Jazz in the Pines festival in 2014, and served as ensemble-in-residence for Idyllwild Arts for many years. Definiens has also produced multiple performances of original chamber operas, for which Jeanette worked as the répétiteur.

Yaryan began at Idyllwild Arts Academy and Summer Program in 2011. Her competition-winning students have been accepted to Juilliard, New England Conservatory, Royal College of Music, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Cleveland Institute of Music, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Berklee College of Music, and many more. Her chamber music students have been accepted into the prestigious Fischoff competition. Prior to Idyllwild Arts, Yaryan taught at USC, Cypress College, El Camino College, and California Academy of Math and Science High School. She is an internationally renowned educator, and has been an invited pedagogue in China, Australia, and the UK. She has also presented at international conferences in Malaysia, Italy, Brazil, Scotland, and England, including at a conference for visually-impaired musicians and those who work with them. Always interested in many styles of music, Yaryan was a prizewinning jazz student for years, has worked extensively as a musical director for theatre productions, and worked for two decades as a professional church pianist, organist, and choir director.