Bio
Grace Shepard (DMA, University of South Carolina) is a pianist, composer, and researcher currently based in South Florida. As a performer, she is equally interested in traditional and new music and has significant experience as a collaborative pianist. She is excited to create possibilities through proactive performances, including interdisciplinary projects and performances that engage the local communities and their needs. Always eager to share music, Shepard seeks traditional solo opportunities, chamber opportunities and unconventional outreach programming.
As a soloist, she has had the opportunity to premiere many new works and to highlight historically under-represented composers, such as Mariah Reynolds Park and Adele Aus der Ohe. From the traditional piano canon, Shepard has performed several full-length recital programs, including several Beethoven sonatas, significant works by Liszt, and countless other works by recognized composers across the Western classical tradition. In 2014, she made her international debut with orchestra, performing Beethoven’s Second Concerto. She has participated in masterclasses with the Parker Quartet, Anton Nel, and Valentina Lisitsa, among others.
In her chamber music experience, she has performed actively since her time at university. Highlights include performing Aaron Copland’s Piano Quartet and Caroline Shaw’s Thousandth Orange. As a new music pianist, many of her chamber experiences include working with ensembles of indeterminant instrumentation. She has also premiered over ten chamber works by young composers as part of the 2019 Spark Collective at USC.
A relative newcomer to composition, Shepard began composing for chamber and solo instruments in 2019. Her compositions have been performed at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, the NASM Conference and as part of the 30 Americans new works commission at Columbia Museum of Art. Equally influenced by classical music and more modern sources, her music is often inspired by nature, concepts of place, and by literature and visual art. In 2024, she participated in Composing in the Wilderness, which united her love of the outdoors with music.
Teaching has been a constant in Shepard’s past since her work as an undergrad at the University of South Carolina. Her students have competed in local competitions, achieved exemplary evaluation reports from GUILD and RCM, and perform a diverse repertoire of pieces. On a collegiate level, her students have successfully progressed through barrier juries, completed their degrees, and continued to successful careers. Her pedagogy focuses on creating full musical experiences for her students, based on their unique needs and goals, whether they are adult beginners or advanced musicians.
Shepard’s recent research has focused on the life and works of Adele Aus der Ohe. From her dissertation, “Adele aus der Ohe: Pioneering Through Recital Programming at Carnegie Hall, 1895” to her recent lecture-recital “How to Learn New Music from the 1890s,” her focus has been on the turn of the twentieth century and American piano development. Beyond that, Adele Aus der Ohe also highlights her interest in under-represented musicians and composers. Through future research, Shepard hopes to bring attention to aspects of the world that have been overlooked in the past and connect them to inform us for the future.
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