Fred Karpoff

Fred Karpoff (born January 28, 1963) is an American pianist and music educator, who is renowned for being the creator of the 3-D Piano Method of piano playing and teaching and the artistic producer of Entrada Piano Technique.

Education

Karpoff graduated from Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati and received his undergraduate education at Northwestern University as a student of Robert Weirich. He earned his master and doctoral degrees from the Peabody Institute while studying with Ann Schein Carlyss, Leon Fleisher, and Yoheved Kaplinsky. He performed in master classes for Murray Perahia, Menahem Pressler, Paul Badura Skoda, Lazar Berman, Gabriel Chodos, and Boris Berman, and has had extensive coachings with Richard Goode and Karl Ulrich Schnabel.

During doctoral studies, Karpoff faced a career-threatening injury due to inefficient posture and movement patterns while practicing the piano for extended periods of time. His diagnosis included tendonitis, bursitis, myositis, and synovitis. After following medical advice with unsatisfactory results, he worked with Kaplinsky to overhaul his piano technique and with movement specialists in the Feldenkrais Method, The Alexander Technique, and Tai chi to integrate whole-body modalities into a more efficient way to play the piano.

Performing Career

Karpoff won prizes in several international piano competitions (San Antonio, Competition Internationale, Frinna Awerbuch) and was a semi-finalist in the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition. He served as a United States Artistic Ambassador to Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Ireland.

Chamber music and vocal coaching have been central to Karpoff’s career, including residencies at festivals in Siena and Montecatini, Italy and numerous performances at the Skaneateles Festival in central New York. He has performed with many foremost musicians, including violinists Curtis Macomber, Steven Copes, Mark Fewer and Harumi Rhodes; violist Michelle LaCourse, cellists Clive Greensmith, Peter Rejto and, Shauna Rolston; clarinetist Larry Combs, flutist Marina Piccinini, and hornist Eric Ruske. He had a longstanding professional duo with his wife, soprano Rebecca Karpoff until the latter’s retirement from performing in 2004. From 2007-2011 he was the pianist of the Boccaccio Trio with violinist Jeremy Mastrangelo and cellist David Ledoux. An international Steinway artist, Fred Karpoff has also performed in France, Italy, China, India, Finland, and Canada.

He released Heroic Tales: Piano Music of Edward MacDowell on the Sonatabop label and Renegade Classics issued his live Beethoven Trio performances with musicians at the Skaneateles Festival, in addition to This Moment and Snapshots with soprano Rebecca Karpoff.

Teaching and Lecturing

He began his teaching career as an assistant at Peabody and as a faculty associate at The Johns Hopkins University. He taught for one year at the University of Maryland Baltimore County before accepting a professorship at Syracuse University in 1991. Karpoff served as a Visiting Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music in the fall of 2011. For the first half of 2013, he taught in Strasbourg, France as part of Syracuse University’s study-abroad music program.

Karpoff presents workshops and master classes throughout North America and abroad, including appearances at several MTNA Conferences, the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, and the East-West Asia Conference. He is regularly featured as the conference artist and clinician for state and provincial music teachers’ associations, including those of Texas, California, Oregon, Oklahoma, Kansas, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Alabama, Alberta, and North and South Carolina.

Video Pedagogy

In 2007, Karpoff began working with documentary filmmaker and Syracuse University professor Richard Breyer on 3-D Piano: The Three-Dimensional Pianist, a DVD and book that captured Karpoff teaching twelve students at different levels of ability and demonstrating his 3-D Method of piano playing and teaching. 3-D Piano was released in 2009 and was awarded the Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award by Music Teachers National Association in 2011. In 2014, Karpoff created Entrada Piano Technique, an online video resource designed to promote effortless piano technique. From 2017-2019, he served as Director of Professional Development for the Faber Piano Institute, and explored a joint offering with Faber.

References

1. "Beethoven Trios Live At the Skaneateles Festival". cdbaby. Retrieved 9 March 2020.

2. Karpoff, Fred. "Syracuse University: College of Visual and Performing Arts". Retrieved 6 March 2020.

3. Karpoff, Fred (March 5, 2020). "An Interview with Fred Karpoff" (Interview). Interviewed by Owen Cross. Syracuse, New York. {{cite interview}}: Unknown parameter |subjectlink= ignored (|subject-link= suggested) (help)

4. "2011 MTNA National Conference: Milwaukee, Wisconsin". Music Teachers National Association. Retrieved 10 March 2020.