Shannon Hesse, piano

Shannon Hesse, keyboard area coordinator at Houston Baptist University, has performed both nationally and internationally as a solo and collaborative pianist, including a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall with soprano Marion Dickson in 2009. Her concert schedule consists of recurring guest appearances in recitals sponsored by organizations such as the College Music Society, National Association of Teachers of Singing, Society of Composers, Inc., Tuesday Musical Club, Galveston Island Arts Academy Concert Series, Greenbriar Consortium, and the Houston Composers Alliance. She regularly performs with musicians from the Houston Symphony, including her husband, cellist Anthony Kitai. A devoted teacher, Dr. Hesse is a long-standing member of Music Teachers National Association, where she is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music. She is frequently in demand as an adjudicator and her students have been prizewinners in Houston-area piano competitions.

 

Dr. Hesse has served on the faculties of Texas Southern University and Valdosta State University, and spent many wonderful summers teaching at Westminster Choir College's High School Piano Camp and at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, where she served as Coordinator of Collaborative Piano. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Dr. Hesse holds additional degrees from Catholic University and Westminster Choir College. She is a member of the honors societies Phi Kappa Lambda and Alpha Lambda Delta. Her teachers have included Jean Barr, Ingrid Clarfield, Marilyn Neeley, and Rita Sloan.