04/11/18
HAYS, Kan. – The Department of Music and Theatre and the International Piano Series at Fort Hays State University will host the Manno-Dean piano duo. The concert will be at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, April 15, in Sheridan Hall’s Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center.

The duo, Dr. Terrie Manno, professor of piano at Minnesota State University Moorhead, and Dr. Michael Dean, associate professor of music at Oklahoma Baptist University, is in its seventh season of performing.

They have entertained nationally and abroad with a repertoire that spans more than 400 years of music and features works by Aaron Copland, Manuel Infante, Witold Lutoslawski, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Johann Strauss and Nancy Beach.

Manno, a native of southern Calif., earned undergraduate and master’s degrees from California State University, Fresno, and received a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Arizona.

“She is a dedicated teacher and scholar who has spent the past three decades teaching and developing as an educator,” said Dr. Irena Ravitskaya, associate professor of music and theatre at FHSU. “Manno is an avid scholar on how musicians’ brains learn and process information, helping her students cultivate and deepen the mental focus they need for successful performance,” she said.

Dean earned undergraduate degrees in piano performance and mathematics from Minnesota State University before serving at OBU. He earned a master’s and doctorate degree from the University of Oklahoma.

“He serves as east district co-president of the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association and maintains an active schedule as a workshop clinician, adjudicator and faculty member,” said Ravitskaya.

In 2011, Dean was awarded the Promising Teacher Award for instructional excellence by OBU.

The concert is free and open to the public.