Kate Acone is currently pursuing a DMA in Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Toronto, having completed previous degrees at the Universities of Michigan and Oklahoma.
As a performer, Kate designs programs intended for community and audience engagement. She has performed concerti with orchestras, won the Oklahoma State MTNA Young Artist Competition, and performed in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Room. She is an active chamber performer, including her time at Yarn/Wire’s Institute, the Brevard Music Center, the American School in Switzerland, and the University of Toronto’s Contemporary Music Ensemble. She participated in Carnegie Hall’s Audience Engagement Institute with her saxophone-piano-trio (CAYO) and performed across NYC. She also has a wide swath of musical theatre accompaniment experience, including five years on staff at the University of Oklahoma Musical Theatre Department.
Kate currently teaches at the University of Toronto Piano Pedagogy Program in addition to running a private studio. She has previously taught piano to University of Toronto music minors, group piano classes at the University of Michigan, and was on faculty at the Faber Piano Institute, where she taught a full studio and developed programming. She was the recipient of the 2018 MarySue Harris Studio Teacher Fellowship through MTNA, a national award for an entrepreneurial studio teacher for her work teaching in Ann Arbor.
She has presented her academic work at the MTNA National Conference, the National Conference for Keyboard Pedagogy, and the Group Piano/Piano Pedagogy Forum (GP3). Her work ranges from pop music education to rethinking traditional pedagogical techniques, including her presentation on 40 Ways to Practice Scales.
Her primary teachers include Marietta Orlov, Dr. Logan Skelton, Dr. Stephen Beus, and Dr. Ed Gates. She has studied pedagogy with Drs. Jane Magrath, Barbara Fast, Midori Koga, John Ellis, and Aya Higuchi Hagelthorn.
