Deon Nielsen Price (Bachelor of Arts and Gold Medal Piano Award-Brigham Young
University; Master of Music in piano performance-University of Michigan,
Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance with Honors in
Accompanying-University of Southern California) is a prize-winning pianist,
commissioned composer, recording artist, educator and author.
As pianist, she performs on many university and community concert series in
the United States, as well as at international festivals in China, Alaska,
Italy, Austria, Germany, England, France, Spain, Mexico, Korea, and the U.S.
under the auspices of Academia Pro Arte, the International Congresses on
Women in Music, the National Association of Composers/USA, the ECHOSPHERE
touring ensemble and the Price Duo with her clarinetist son, Berkeley Price,
D.M.A. Eastman School of Music. Her teachers included Carl Fuerstner, Benning
Dexter, Gyorgy Sandor, Aube Tzerko, Daniel Pollack, Gwendolyn Koldofsky, and
Brooks Smith.
Having studied composition primarily with Leslie Bassett and Samuel Adler,
her works are performed in many countries including the former Soviet Union,
Korea and China. Many are published by Culver Crest Publications and
Southern Music Company and recorded on Cambria Master Recordings: SunRays
("first rate" American Record Guide); SunRays II: City Views;
and Clariphonia
("inventive and entertaining" AMR).
Artist/composer residencies, commissions, grants and awards have been from
the Alaska Arts Council, American Composers Forum, American Music Center,
Arts/Mid-west, Barlow Endowment for Composition, Beijing Concert Hall,
International Alliance for Women in Music, Mu Phi Epsilon, American Society
of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), California Composers Today,
New York Mormon Composers, the Musicians' Union and Meet the Composer.
Retired from the piano/theory faculty at El Camino College in Torrance, CA,
Dr. Price has also taught on the adjunct faculties at California State
University, Northridge; University of California, Santa Barbara; University
of Southern California; Los Angeles Harbor and Mission Colleges, Long Beach
City Colleges, and the Crossroads School of Arts, as well as in her private
studio. She has served as adjudicator for performer or composer competitions,
such as the Gina Bacchauer Piano Competition, California Association of
Private Music Teachers (CAPMT), Music Teachers Association of California
(MTAC), Young Musicians Foundation, International Alliance for Women in Music
(IAWM) and National Association of Composers (NACUSA).
Author of the texts, Accompanying Skills for Pianists and the manual,
SightPlay with Skillful Eyes (Culver Crest Publications), she has also
written articles on piano accompanying and sightplaying for Clavier Magazine
and Keyboard Companion and edited the text College Class Piano-Comprehensive
Approach (Demibach Editions).
Deon is married to Kendall O. Price, Ph.D., and they are the parents of five
children and sixteen grandchildren.
