HSU Professor to be Honored as a Steinway Artist

Dr. Mark Puckett, Hardin-Simmons University professor of piano and artist-in-residence, will be honored as a Steinway Artist at a reception, Friday, May 2, 2014, 1 – 2:30 p.m., Caldwell Hall – Third Floor Commons.

The president of Steinway and Sons, Ron Losby, will be on the HSU campus to present the internationally prestigious award to Puckett during the reception.

Puckett has performed as soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Canada, Europe, Central America, and Asia. Conductors with whom he has worked include David Itkin, Shinik Hahm, Robert Cronquist, Guy Frazier Harrison, and Ray Luke.

With this award, Puckett joins the ranks of such artists as Benjamin Britten, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Vladimir Horowitz, Cole Porter, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Harry Connick, Jr., Billy Joel, Evgeny Kissin, Burkard Schliessmann, and Diana Krall.

More than 1,600 concert artists and ensembles bear the title Steinway Artist.

http://www.steinway.com/artists/solo-profile/p/MarkPuckett

More on Dr. Mark Puckett:

Puckett has taught at Hardin-Simmons University for 28 years. Prior to coming to HSU, Puckett taught at the Bösendorfer International Piano Academy in Vienna, Austria. He has been the Donald J. Feagin Guest Artist at the University of Tulsa and has performed at the French Piano Institute Soiree Musicale.

He has won awards in several international piano competitions, including second prize in the 1990 New Orleans International Piano Competition.

In addition to performing, Puckett is in demand as a master class clinician, lecturer, and adjudicator. Recordings include Chopin’s Op 10 Etudes, Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit and Liszt’s ‘La campanella,’ and Rendezvous, a CD of two-piano and four-hand piano music recorded with his wife Lauren Puckett, associate professor of piano at HSU and a graduate of The Eastman School of Music in piano performance.

The Pucketts founded and co-direct the Abilene Summer Piano Camp, which takes place each year during the last week of June on the HSU campus. The camp is designed for talented middle school and high school piano students.

Puckett earned his Bachelor of Music degree at Oklahoma City University where he studied piano with Dr. Clarence Burg and Ernestine Scott. He attended the University of Kansas and completed his master’s and doctoral degrees in piano with Sequeira Costa, Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler and Claude Frank.

https://www.hsutx.edu/academics/cofa/