Fred Karpoff
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Fred Karpoff (born January 28, 1963) is an American pianist and music educator, renowned for developing both the 3-D Piano Method of piano playing and teaching and the Entrada Piano Technique. Karpoff received his undergraduate education at Northwestern University, and his Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) from the Peabody Conservatory. He is Professor of Piano and Ensemble Arts and co-chair of the keyboard department at the Setnor School of Music, Syracuse University.[1]
Karpoff graduated from Walnut Hills High School[2] in Cincinnati, Ohio and received his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University,[3] studying under Robert Weirich. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees from the Peabody Institute,[4] while studying with Ann Schein Carlyss, Leon Fleisher, and Yoheved Kaplinsky. He performed in master classes for Murray Perahia, Menahem Pressler, Paul Badura-Skoda, Lazar Berman, Gabriel Chodos, and Boris Berman, and received extensive coaching from Richard Goode and Karl Ulrich Schnabel.
Performing career
Karpoff has won prizes in several international piano competitions (San Antonio,[5] Competition Internationale,[6] Frinna Awerbuch[7]) and was a semi-finalist in the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition.[8] He served as a USIA Artistic Ambassador to Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Ireland.[9]
Chamber music and vocal coaching have been central to Karpoff's career. He has held residencies at festivals in Siena and Montecatini, and given numerous performances at the Skaneateles Festival[10] in central New York. He has performed with other musicians, including violinists Curtis Macomber, Steven Copes, Mark Fewer and Harumi Rhodes; violist Michelle LaCourse, cellists Clive Greensmith, Peter Rejto and, Shauna Rolston; clarinetist Larry Combs, flutist Marina Piccinini, and hornist Eric Ruske. He had a longstanding professional duo with his wife, soprano Rebecca Karpoff. From 2007 to 2011, he was the pianist of the Boccaccio Trio[11] with violinist Jeremy Mastrangelo and cellist David Ledoux. He performed as soloist in six concerti with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra[12] from 2000 to 2010, including in the ensemble's final Contributors Concert. An international Steinway artist,[13] Karpoff has also performed in France, Italy, China, India, Finland, and Canada.
He released Heroic Tales: Piano Music of Edward MacDowell[14] on the Sonatabop label, and Renegade Classics issued his live Beethoven Trio performances with musicians at the Skaneateles Festival,[15] in addition to the albums This Moment[16] and Snapshots[17] with soprano Rebecca Karpoff.