Susan Keith Gray Artist Faculty, collaborative piano University of South Dakota Susan Keith Gray is in demand as pianist, teacher, adjudicator and clinician. As a soloist, she has performed with orchestras throughout the southern and midwestern regions of the United States. Additional recognition as a collaborative pianist has led to recital performances with a number of artists including cellists Wendy Warner and Anthony Elliott, flutists Leone Buyse and Torkil Bye, and singers Carla Connors, Louis Otey, Scott Piper, Charsie Randolph Sawyer and Patricia Prunty. She has served on the Instrumental Accompanying Faculty at the Music Academy of the West and as staff accompanist for national competitions.
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Gray is the founder and director of the Master of Music Specialization in Collaborative Piano at the University of South Dakota which officially began in 2012. She is the 2014-2016 Esther and Wayne Knutson Distinguished Professor of the College of Fine Arts. In 2005, she was recipient of the prestigious Belbas-Larson Award for Excellence in Teaching given annually by the University of South Dakota. Her students of all age levels are frequent winners in local, regional or national solo and concerto competitions. Many are successful graduates of undergraduate and graduate music programs throughout the country. She served as president of the South Dakota Music Teachers Association from 2002-04 and continues to hold positions of leadership in that organization.
Gray holds degrees in solo piano from Converse College and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and the Doctor of Musical Arts in chamber music and accompanying from The University of Michigan. Her teachers have included George Lucktenberg, Ian Hobson, Eckart Sellheim, and Martin Katz and additional work with Kenneth Drake, Theodore Lettvin, Louis Nagel and Jean Barr.
Gray holds degrees in solo piano from Converse College and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and the Doctor of Musical Arts in chamber music and accompanying from The University of Michigan. Her teachers have included George Lucktenberg, Ian Hobson, Eckart Sellheim, and Martin Katz and additional work with Kenneth Drake, Theodore Lettvin, Louis Nagel and Jean Barr.