In 1983 Madeleine Crouch, of Whittle Music Company in Dallas, Texas, approached me about formulating plans to have a workshop that would involve the collaboration of business and academia working together to provide summer workshops for piano teachers. Madeleine wanted to offer a workshop that would keep teachers abreast of the latest innovations in piano teaching. Along with this we wanted to provide an educational environment that promoted renewing experiences for piano teachers.

This invitation to develop plans for an ongoing workshop – to be called National Piano Teachers Institute – came along just as Louise Bianchi, a pioneering pedagogue and faculty member at SMU, retired. Louise Bianchi was well known for her work at SMU as Director of the Piano Preparatory School and Pedagogy degree program. When Louise retired, she implored me to continue the summer workshops for piano teachers that she had implemented several years prior to my joining the faculty at SMU in 1975. She had a burning passion to educate piano teachers and wanted to see these summer programs continued. So, when Madeleine Crouch approached me, it did not take much to get my motivational juices flowing.

Madeleine and I, along with Dr. Tom Tunks, Associate Dean of Meadows School of the Arts in 1983 and now Associate Provost at SMU, had our first meeting at Whittle. Over the next several weeks and months, we planned out our first NPTI, which took place at Whittle Music. We began with an enrollment of 34 and, by the second year, increased it to 48. Among the distinguished clinicians who presented sessions during those first years were: Seymour Bernstein, Sandy Feldstein, Paul Sheftel, Maurice Hinson, Lee Evans, Willard Palmer, Louise Bianchi, Jane Bastien, Carol Noona, David Karp and several others. We offered college credit and participants enrolled in a seminar to discuss projects related to piano teaching and composition.

In 1985 Whittle Music (and the Steinway dealer in Dallas) closed their doors for business. It was during this period of deciding what to do next that a recent graduate of North Texas State University, who was managing the piano print music at Brook Mays Music Company, asked to have lunch so he could interview me for the monthly newsletter. I had heard several positive comments from piano teachers in the Dallas area about Richard Rejino. Little did I know that following that interview, Richard and I would be continuing the NPTI programs for the next 23 years.

Richard became the Associate Director of NPTI in 1985 and continued the work that Madeleine began: recommending clinicians, working with publishers to help subsidize expenses, budgetary planning, and development of publicity materials. He also provides the finest selection of print music to peruse and purchase for those teachers attending NPTI. During the ensuing years, Richard and his wife, Mona, have given annual workshops featuring new publications.

As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the NPTI, we also mark a new beginning. With the help of the SMU Piano Preparatory Summer Camps, the NPTI is now offering opportunities for the Young Artist, from ages 6 to 18, to work with master teachers and clinicians in a series of classes, private lessons, master classes, and recitals. These new opportunities will also allow teachers to observe clinicians working with students of different ages and levels of development in private and master class settings.

As we begin this new era, we announce the formation of a new name which retains the old and blends in the new. We proudly introduce the National Piano Institute for Teachers and Young Artists. Richard and I look forward to new and exciting educational experiences in an environment that promotes self-renewal. We still believe that we ‘learn to teach so that we can teach to learn.’ We hope you’ll join us for the 25th anniversary of NPTI.

David Karp