Named Teacher of the Year by the Alabama Music Teachers Association and Music Educator of the Year by the Arts Council of Tuscaloosa, pianist Kevin T. Chance has been hailed as “a superlative musician” playing “with musical conviction and muscularity.”  He has performed throughout the United States and abroad as both soloist and collaborator. Recent engagements include performances at Carnegie Hall as well as concerto appearances with Bernstein's Age of Anxiety and Rachamninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini with the Huxford Symphony Orchestra, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the University of Alabama Wind Ensemble, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with the Athens Chorale in Georgia, and Gerald Finzi’s Eclogue.  In March 2016, he also appeared with the Tuscaloosa Symphony in a performance of Saint-Saens's Carnival of the Animals. Recital engagements have taken him throughout the U.S. with recent appearances at the American Matthay Association Festivals, the University of Oklahoma, the Louisiana Piano Series International, and the Albion College International Piano Festival. He has also been presented in performances by the Mobile Opera, the Mississippi Opera, Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, the University of Texas at Brownsville, the University of South Carolina, Columbus State University, Auburn University, Millsaps College, the University of North Dakota, the Saratoga Arts Fest, and Bucknell University.  Dr. Chance was a prizewinner of several regional and national competitions including the National Society of Arts and Letters Career Awards Competition, Music Teachers National Association Competitions (MTNA), and the Brevard Music Center Concerto Competition. 

 

Dr. Chance is a member of the Semplice Duo with flutist Cristina Ballatori. In August 2004, they were named the winners of the Notes at 9,000 Emerging Artist Series Competition in Colorado. Past seasons have taken them to Texas, Colorado, New York, and Louisiana, and they were selected as artist fellows for the 2005 Hampden-Sydney Music Festival in Virginia, where they returned for a series of performances in 2008.  They frequently perform in recital on the “Live from Hochstein” series, which are broadcast live on WXXI radio in Rochester, NY, and in 2014, they made their European debut in Paris.

 

A sought-after teacher, Dr. Chance maintains a prize-winning studio, and he was recently named a Leadership Board Faculty Fellow by the Universtiy of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences. His students are frequently named winners and finalists in local, state, regional, and national competitions, including the 2009 Music Teachers National Association’s National Competition Finals in Atlanta.  He currently serves on the faculties of several summer festivals including the New Orleans Piano Institute.  In demand as a clinician and adjudicator, he regularly presents workshops and lecture-performances on repertoire and pedagogy throughout the country, and he has served as a guest artist and clinician for the Michigan, Mississippi, and Alabama state music teacher conferences. Additionally, Dr. Chance has presented at the 2023, 2019, 2016, and 2008 Music Teachers National Association Conferences. He is a Past President of the Alabama Music Teachers Association and is a past board member of the Music Teachers National Association serving as Director of the Southern Division and later Vice President. Kevin currently serves as the President-Elect of Music Teachers National Association and is a past president of the American Matthay Association.

 

Serving as Associate Professor of Piano and Chair of the Gloria Narramore Moody Piano Area at the University of Alabama, Dr. Chance is a former faculty member at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham.  He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music where he was awarded the Jerald C. Graue Fellowship for academic excellence.  An alumnus of the Aspen Music Festival, he holds the Master of Music degree from Louisiana State University and graduated magna cum laude from Birmingham-Southern College.  His teachers have included Barry Snyder, Constance Knox Carroll, Ann Schein, Anne Koscielny, Herbert Stessin, William DeVan and Betty Sue Shepherd.