Gail Berenson

Gail Berenson is Professor Emerita of Piano at Ohio University, Athens, where she was awarded the “Distinguished Teacher of the Year” Award in 2000 and the “Distinguished Service” Award in 2016. Prior to coming to Ohio, she was on the faculty of the University of Illinois, Urbana. An active performer and passionate chamber music collaborator, while at Ohio University she regularly performed with flutist, Alison Brown Sincoff, as a member of the Ohio University Lyric Duo.

As a result of her distinguished work as a piano pedagogue, along with her reputation as a powerful advocate for musician’s health, she is much in demand as a clinician and guest lecturer.  She is also a frequent performer, master class artist, adjudicator, author, reviewer and pedagogy consultant. She has performed and lectured in over thirty-three states and eleven countries. She has been a presenter at the European Piano Teachers Conferences in Manchester, England; Funchal, Madeira; and Amsterdam, Netherlands, served as a guest clinician at the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Association’s National Conferences in Halifax , Vancouver and Winnipeg Canada, and presented sessions at four World Conferences of the International Society of Music Education in Beijing, China, Thessaloniki, Greece, Porto Alegre, Brazil,  Glasgow, Scotland and Brisbane, Australia (virtually).  She has also served as a piano instructor in Yamaha’s Passport to Music program, in cooperation with Crystal Cruise Lines.

Ms. Berenson began to build a reputation as a performing artist early when at age eleven she began accompanying the forty-member male chorus conducted by her piano teacher, appearing in concert throughout Wisconsin and Illinois. A native of Kenosha, Wisconsin, she continued her education at Northwestern University, completing degrees in piano performance, studying piano with Louis Crowder and Guy Duckworth. She also performed in master classes with world-renowned accompanist Gerald Moore, baritone Pierre Bernac, duo-pianists Vronsky and Babin and, at the Lucerne International Music Festival, with pianist and accomplished chamber musician, Mieczyslaw Horszowski.

Ohio University Lyric Duo

Ms. Berenson is one of the co-authors of A Symposium for Pianists and Teachers: Strategies to Develop Mind and Body for Optimal Performance and, as a member of the Lorenz Advisory Board she contributed to the innovative piano method, Piano Discoveries, and is co-author of “Ask the Professor“. She has also authored three chapters for the fourth edition of the Lyke, Haydon, Rollin book, Creative Piano Teaching, published in spring 2011.  Ms. Berenson has also written articles for Keyboard Companion, the on-line journal, Piano Pedagogy Forum and served as a contributing editor to Piano & Keyboard.

She is a Past President of Music Teachers National Association, an association of over 23,000 members, and in 2015 was awarded MTNA’s prestigious “Distinguished Service Award”.  In recognition of her significant contributions to the music world and the music teaching profession, she was awarded an MTNA “Foundation Fellow Award” in 2007.  She has also held the position of President-Elect, President, Vice President, Chair of the 2002 and 2003 MTNA National Conference Committees, has served on the 1996, 1997 and 2007 Conference Committees and since 2014 has chaired the MTNA Pedagogy Saturday Wellness Track.

A Past President of the Ohio Music Teachers Association, she holds MTNA’s Master Certificate in piano and piano pedagogy and was the recipient of the 1999 OhioMTA “Certified Teacher of the Year” award and the 2004 OhioMTA “Collegiate Teacher of the Year” award.

A passionate supporter of educating musicians on staying healthy and keeping their students healthy, she has served as the founding chair of numerous wellness committees, helping associations begin their foray into this important topic.  She initiated a wellness course, Performance Preparation, at Ohio University in 1989.  In the same year, she established the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy’s Committee on the Prevention of Medical Problems, one of the first such committees in the United States.  In 2001 it became the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy’s Committee on Pianists’ Wellness.   She served as one of the founding members, representing the United States and the piano area, as a member of the International Society of Music Education’s Forum on Instrumental and Vocal Teaching, and continues as one of the Commission on Instrumental and Vocal Teaching special advisors.  In 2012 she helped initiate and chaired the ISME Musicians’ Health and Wellness Special Interest Group, currently serving as one of its special advisors.  In 2015 she initiated the College Music Society’s Committee on Musicians’ Health.

She was the recipient of the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy’s 2019 Outstanding Service Recognition Award and more recently was awarded the Frances Clark Center’s 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Now a resident of Sarasota, Florida, she serves on the Florida State Music Teachers’ Association Board as Co-Chair of its Wellness Committee and served as Co-Chair of the FSMTA 2022 State Conference.  She also serves on the Sarasota Concert Association Executive Board and is Co-Chair of the SCA’s Music Matinees Concert Series.  Her students are performing and teaching in independent studios and on college faculties throughout the world.