Stephen C. Fiess

Dr. Stephen Fiess, a native of Stratford, Ontario, Canada, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from the University of Western Ontario; a Master’s degree in Piano Performance from Indiana University; and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance, Pedagogy and Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He also holds an Associate Certificate in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto, and is Nationally Certified by the Music Teachers National Association and the National Guild of Piano Teachers. He also holds an Associate Certificate in organ from the American Guild of Organists. His teachers include Josephine Parrott, Dr. Damiana Bratuz, John Ogdon, Dr. Henry Upper, Dr. Keith Wallingford, and Robert Spillman. Dr. Fiess was a prize winner in the 1989 Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition. He also won first prize in the Kawai Searching for a Star competition. Dr. Fiess has composed ballets that have been performed in Colorado; and a ballet that was performed at the International Dance Festival of Havana, Cuba. He has composed several published piano solos and duets, available from Alfred Music Publishers and Mayfair Music (Toronto). Dr. Fiess has also composed church music; including a setting of the Lutheran liturgy, and three sets of variations on Christmas carols for organ, published by Morningstar Music. He has also recorded a CD of his solo piano compositions, entitled White Reindeer. His interest in Prokofiev's piano music led to a doctoral dissertation on that subject, and subsequently a book, The Piano Works of Serge Prokofiev, published in 1994 by Scarecrow Press. Dr. Fiess was the lecturer for the 2009 Denver Area Music Teachers Association (DAMTA) Fall Course, on the subject of Piano Music in the Romantic Era. Dr. Fiess is currently organist at Hillyer Memorial Christian Church in Raleigh, North Carolina; and teaches piano privately in Cary, a suburb of Raleigh.