Nelita True

Since Nelita True made her debut at age seventeen with the Chicago Symphony in Orchestra Hall and her New York debut with the Juilliard Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall, her career has taken her to the major cities of Western and Eastern Europe, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Iceland, New Zealand, Brazil, Australia, Canada, and to Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as to forty-nine states in America. She was a visiting professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, performing and conducting master classes and has been in the People’s Republic of China twelve times for recitals and master classes. She has played recitals on French national television and on Australian National Radio. Her most recent recital in Boston was cited as one of the “Ten Best Classical Performances of the Year.”

Ms. True has been a jury member for the China International Piano Competition, The Queen Sonja International Piano Competition in Norway, the National Piano Competition in Brazil, the Horowitz Competition (Kiev), the Concours de Musique in Canada, the PTNA (Tokyo), the Lev Vlassenko Competition in Australia, the New Orleans, Hilton Head and William Kapell International Piano Competitions in the United States. She has served on many different juries for the Gina Bachauer International Piano Artists Piano Competition and is now serving her second season as Chairman of the International Jury.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Michigan, True went on to The Juilliard School, and followed those studies, earning her doctorate at the Peabody Conservatory under the tutelage of Leon Fleisher. Following the completion of her American education, she earned a Fulbright Grant to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. Formerly Distinguished Professor at the University of Maryland, Ms. True is currently Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music. Her students have been prizewinners in many national and international competitions, and this includes an unprecedented five First Prizes in national Music Teachers National Association competitions. Ms. True was awarded the Certificate of Merit by the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, the Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching at Eastman, the 2002 Achievement Award from MTNA, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Keyboard Pedagogy Conference (USA).

SH Productions of Kansas City produced a series of four videotapes, “Nelita True at Eastman,” featuring her performances, lectures and teaching. These videos are currently being seen on five continents. She has been the subject of feature articles in the following journals: Clavier, Piano Today, The European Piano Teachers’ Journal, and was the subject of the cover story of Keyboard Company. An interview with Ms. True appears in the latest edition of James Bastien’s “How to Teach Piano Successfully,” along with interviews by many legendary and noted professors of piano. Ms. True has been invited to record over 100 works for Advance, Mark, Educo and Academy Records.

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