Anne Waltner

Assistant Professor, piano
Department of Music
306 Davis Fine Arts Building
304.766.5103
awaltner@wvstateu.edu

I grew up on a family farm in a Mennonite community in southeastern South Dakota. There we learned the value of hard work, the importance of resolving differences compassionately, and our interdependence—both on our neighbors and on our planet. After completing a bachelor's degree from Goshen (IN) College with a minor in Spanish and majors in biology and piano (under Marvin Blickenstaff and David Gross), I moved to Mussoorie, India to teach at Woodstock School for three years. There, I rediscovered that living and "musicking" with others requires humility, discipline, perseverance, and the ability to truly listen—invaluable tools that continue to serve me well.

I returned to the US to pursue graduate study in solo piano performance with Ludmila Lazar at Chicago College of Performing Arts. From there I moved to Cleveland to complete a Doctor of Musical Arts degree and an Artist Diploma in collaborative piano performance at Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Anita Pontremoli and Olga Radosavljevich.

I'm grateful that through the interweave of my upbringing, my experience outside the literal and figurative practice room, and my solo and collaborative musical training, I have assembled the sort of diverse toolbelt that equips me not only to appreciate divergent people and viewpoints, but to bring this varied perspective to my work with students.