dhhow Biography

dhhow music studio for advanced piano & flute studies

Biography

Deborah H. How, classical pianist
received the Ph.D. degree in historical musicology (dissertation: Arnold Schonberg's Prelude from the Suite for Piano, Op. 25: from Composition with Twelve Tones to the Twelve-Tone Method) from the USC Thornton School of Music, where she was the recipient of USC's highest graduate-level academic award at the time, the All-University Predoctoral Merit Fellowship. She is the 2010 Winner of the Mu Phi Epsilon Musicological Research Contest (Category I: Ph.D. Dissertations) and has held positions as both a Teaching Fellow and Lecturer in the Department of Music History & Literature at USC. Deborah was a research associate at the Arnold Schoenberg Institute at USC before its move to Vienna; she received an Avenir Foundation Research Grant to conduct her dissertation research at the Archive of the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna. She received the M.A. degree in ethnomusicology (thesis: Geza Music of Kabuki: Scenic Design through Music) from the UCLA School of Music and studied with the Grand Kabuki of Tokyo while in residence at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Theatre & Dance. She graduated from the External Examination (Honors) Program at Swarthmore College with the B.A. degree in music and theater studies (scenic design). Deborah belongs to the Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Societies and to the Mu Phi Epsilon International Music Fraternity. She is a member of the Royal Conservatory of Music Examinations (RCME) College of Examiners and is on faculty at Two Cranes Music Festival.

Deborah has also been on the music faculty (piano) at Mount St. Mary's College in Brentwood. She has taught at the Aube Tzerko Piano Academy at New Roads High School, Crossroads School, The Odyssey Program, Menorah Academy, and Ohr Eliyahu Academy/Streisand School. Deborah is a certified Orff-Schulwerk teacher and has expertise in working with children with special needs. She is the co-founder and director of Kinanthi World Music for Youth (currently on hiatus), which, in conjunction with the UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology, has offered ensemble classes in Javanese gamelan and Balinese gamelan, group lessons in African Drumming, and workshops in Israeli/Yiddish Dance. Deborah is also an early childhood music specialist and helps general education teachers incorporate music into their daily lesson plans. In February 2009, for example, she presented a lecture/workshop, "Playing with Music: Music in Early Childhood Development, Ages 3-8," for the Applied Developmental Psychology program at UCLA.

Deborah enjoys playing both solo and ensemble repertoire and performs regularly in Los Angeles and Philadelphia with various colleagues. She frequently concertizes for fundraising and benefit events in Southern California and has recently appeared as a piano concerto soloist with both the Formosa Chamber Orchestra (2009) and the Los Angeles Doctors Symphony Orchestra (2007, 20010, 2011). Her teachers include Antoinette Perry (USC), Charles Abramovic (Philadelphia), and Sharon Lipman (Santa Monica).

Deborah also maintains an active private music studio. Her students have garnered recognition, prizes, and awards in piano, theory, and composition in various local, regional, state, national, and international events, including the World Piano Pedagogy Conference Master Classes, MTAC State Convention, Southwestern Youth Music Festival, Southern California Junior Bach Festival, MTNA State/Division/National Composition Competition, ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Contest, and Los Angeles Philharmonic Composers Fellowship Program. They have also been winners at the Asia America Symphony Association Scholarship Competition, ESMMF Glendale Piano Competition, CAPMT State Concerto Competition, CAPMT State Honors and District III Honors Auditions, CAPMT State and District III Bartok & Contemporary Music Festival Auditions, MTAC State Concerto/Solo Competition, MTAC State Panel Finals Auditions, MTAC-WLA Robert Turner Piano Concerto Competition (performing with the Los Angeles Doctors Symphony Orchestra), MTAC-WLA Alice Frazier Kitchen Memorial Scholarship Competition, MTAC-WLA Piano Trio Competition, Young Musicians Foundation Scholarship Program, Redlands Bowl Young Artists Auditions, Antelope Valley College Bach Festival, Cypress College Piano Festival, Los Angeles City Elementary School Music Association Scholarship Competition, MTAC Composers Today Young Composers Guild, and MTAC State Composition Competition.

Deborah's students also participate in the Royal Conservatory of Music Examinations, MTAC Certificate of Merit Evaluations, MTAC-WLA Festivals and Student Recitals, and NGPT Piano Playing Guild Auditions; they have been presented in the master classes of Igor Kipnis, Laurette Goldberg, William Grant Naboré, Angela Cheng, Mark Zeltser, Max Levinson, Hans Boepple, Robert Lehrbaumer, Aiko Onishi, Robert Ward, David Shimoni, Stephen Perry, Zitta Zohar, Jean-David Coen, Young-Sook Kim, Scott McBride Smith, Lino Rivera, Barbara Lester-Sink, Kevin Fitz-Gerald, Teresa McCollough, and Sharon Lipman. Deborah is in high demand as a lecturer on piano pedagogy topics and travels throughout the state giving talks and seminars.

Committed to community service, Deborah holds chairperson and/or committee positions at over a dozen non-profit organizations across the United States. (See Non-Profit Service & Education Organizations) She is also the volunteer webmaster for eight non-profits and two businesess. (See below.)

Deborah is the Center Representative for the National Music Certificate Program of the Royal Conservatory of Music Examinations program in West Los Angeles/Santa Monica, and she is a MusicLink teacher, accepting talented and dedicated students on need-based financial scholarship. Deborah also enjoys her work as an alumni interviewer for prospective students applying for admission to Swarthmore College and running information booths for Swarthmore at local College Fairs. She is currently serving a three-year term on the Swarthmore College Alumni Council (2010-2013).

Deborah lives in Santa Monica and is married to queueing theorist and distributed systems engineer Brian Tung; they have two children (boys ages 16 and 8) and six pianos.

aka Deborah How
aka Debby How

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