From left to right: David Montano, Alice Rybak, Steve Mayer and David Genova
The Conservatory Program offers professional training in the performance, composition and pedagogy of Western
art music. The emphasis is a hands-on, performance oriented training within a rigorous
and innovative academic training. As a piano student, you have the opportunity to
study with some of the finest pianists in the world.
In the University Program, students can explore music and other areas of study. At the same time, students
have much latitude as to where they wish to invest the sharpest and deepest of their
intellectual inquiries and creative endeavors.
David Genova, associate professor of piano and director of the community program,
is founder of the Lamont electronic music studio. Mr. Genova received his bachelor
of music and master of music degrees from the University of Colorado and has done
post-graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin. He has studied standard piano
repertoire performance with Leonard Shure and avant-garde repertoire with David Burge.
Mr. Genova has authored a set of computer-based music training programs.
Credited with "piano playing at its most awesome" (The New York Times), pianist Steven
Mayer has brought his unique repertoire of such jazz icons Art Tatum and Fats Waller,
as well as music from Mozart to Liszt to Ives, to thousands of listeners worldwide.
Mr. Mayer has performed with the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Emmanuel Krivine in Liszt's Concerto in Eb, in appearances with Leonard Slatkin and the Minnesota Orchestra in Gottschalk's Grand Tarantelle and with co-soloist John Browning in Mozart's Concerto K.365 under Raymond Leppard, performances with the San Francisco Symphony under Edo de Waart
and Herbert Blomstedt in Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the Reger Piano Concerto, with Gerard Schwarz conducting the New York Chamber Symphony in Beethoven's Concerto No. 4, in a performance of Beethoven's Concerto No. 3 with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and James Conlon, with Dennis Russell Davies conducting
Leon Kirchner's Concerto No. 2 with the American Composer's Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, performances of Mozart Concertos K.595, K.414 and K.482 with the St. Louis and Baltimore Symphonies under conductors Catherine Comet and
David Atherton, appearances with the Amsterdam Philharmonic under Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi
in Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 3, a performance with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Antonio Ros-Marba in Haydn's Concerto in G, performances of Mozart's Concerto K.595 with Hugh Wolff conducting the Atlanta Symphony, appearances with the Dallas Symphony
under Walter Hendl in Ravel's Concerto in G, performances with the Boston Pops and Keith Lockhart in Liszt's Totentanz and an appearance with the Prague Symphony under Jiri Belohlavek in Dvorak's Piano Concerto on the Carnegie Hall International Orchestra Series.
Associate Professor and Director of Piano Pedagogy Studies, Dr. Montano is also Coordinator
of Group Piano Studies, Director of the University Program, and Principal Graduate
Advisor in the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver. His degrees include
a Doctor of Musical Arts in music education from the University of Missouri, Kansas
City, a Master of Music in piano performance from the University of Arizona, Tucson,
a Master of Computer Information Systems from the University of Denver, and a Bachelor
of Music in piano performance from Indiana University, Bloomington. He also holds
a Licentiate Performer's Diploma from Trinity College of Music, London.
Alice Rybak is Chair of the Keyboard Department, Director of the Accompanying Program
and Lecturer of piano at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music. The winner
of several prestigious competitions and awards, Rybak entered the Juilliard School
at age seven, where she studied piano with Herbert Stessin. She has studied piano
and chamber music with Menahem Pressler, Abbey Simon, and Janos Starker at Indiana
University 's School of Music . In demand as both soloist and collaborative artist,
Rybak has performed throughout the country, including performances with the Colorado
Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, and National Repertory Orchestras as well as appearances
at New York 's Town Hall and the 92nd Street Y. As the winner of the United States
Information Agency's 'Artistic Ambassador' competition, she presented five weeks of
concerts and master classes throughout India, Thailand, and Malaysia and has also
appeared at the Taipei Arts Festival.
