Christopher Goldston (b. 1972), Nationally Certified Teacher of Music, holds a master of music degree in piano performance and pedagogy from Northwestern University and a bachelor of music degree in piano performance from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. He has taught at Columbia College Chicago and Sherwood Conservatory of Music and currently maintains an independent studio in the historic Fine Arts Building in Chicago, in addition to teaching virtually. In 1991, Christopher received the National Federation of Music Clubs Lynn Freeman Olson Composition Award for his first composition, “Night Train.” Since then, he has written numerous pieces for piano, voice, and chamber ensemble, including his “Thesis for Wind Quintet,” which won the 1993 Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Composition Contest for North Carolina. He has compositions published by Alfred Music and the FJH Music Company. MTNA has commissioned Christopher for the Collaborative Music Commissioning Project for the 2022 MTNA National Conference.

Christopher has been the national coordinator for the MTNA Composition Competition since 2010. He has also served as state and division coordinator for the competition. Christopher has been very active in the Chicago Area Music Teachers Association and has served in numerous roles, including president, and vice-president in charge of programs. He was member of the year in 2008. He also served as president for the Illinois State Music Teachers Association from 2018 to 2020. Christopher was named an MTNA Foundation Fellow in 2020, and is currently serving as MTNA National Secretary-Treasurer for the 2021-2023 biennium.

Christopher is also in demand as a clinician and guest artist. He has presented for music groups across the United States and has presented sessions at numerous MTNA state conferences, as well as at the MTNA national conference in Kansas City, Missouri, in 2004. His students have won local, state, and national composition competitions, including the 2016–2017 Young Artist winner for the MTNA Composition Competition.

Dr. Julie Knerr Hague teaches piano at her home studio in Windsor, Connecticut. Dr. Hague is a former faculty member at the Hartt School of Music Community Division, the University of Missouri, Oklahoma City University, and Ohio University, where she taught piano pedagogy, applied piano, and group piano to children and adults of all ages.

Julie holds a PhD in Music Education with an Emphasis in Piano Pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma, where her dissertation on elementary level piano technique was nominated for the Best PhD Dissertation Award in 2006. Additional degrees include MM degrees in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where Dr. Hague studied piano and harpsichord; and a BM in Piano Performance from the University of Puget Sound. Her mentors in Piano Pedagogy include Jane Magrath, Barbara Fast, Christos Tsitsaros, and Reid Alexander. She has been teaching private and group piano for 20 years

Dr. Hague is coauthor with Katherine Fisher of the Piano Safari Method, and innovative piano method for beginners that combines learning by ear with learning to read music from the beginning of study. Launched in 2010, Piano Safari is now used by teachers and students throughout the United States and in 20 countries around the world. Together, Dr. Hague and Mrs. Fisher give presentations and lectures at national and regional conferences on various pedagogical topics.

Daniel Shapiro continues to gain recognition as a leading interpreter of Schubert, Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, and Brahms, and as a teacher and coach at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has given critically acclaimed performances across the United States, in Brazil, Britain, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Korea, and China, at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. This season he performs his third complete cycle of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas; previous live performances of all the sonatas can be found on this website. His DVDs of all of Schubert's major piano sonatas and his CD of Beethoven’s “Diabelli” Variations have received enthusiastic reviews.

He has taught at CIM for the past twenty-three years, during which time he has become known as an inspiring teacher who helps students achieve profound understanding and develop vivid interpretations of the great masterworks. His students have won important competitions and obtained teaching posts at prestigious universities and schools of music.

As a chamber musician, Shapiro has had the great fortune of collaborating with some of the world’s leading musicians, including Jaime Laredo, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Joseph Silverstein, Cho-Liang Lin, Roberto Diaz, Ronald Leonard, Franklin Cohen and Frank Rosenwein. He has performed regularly with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra. He has also performed with the Cavani, Mirò, Linden and Rossetti Quartets, and has released chamber music CDs on the Harmonia Mundi and ASV labels. His Beethoven sonata collaborations with violinist Jaime Laredo can be found on youtube.com.

His musical scope also includes the study of conducting: he has worked with Daniel Lewis, Victor Yampolsky, Fritz Zweig, and Gustav Meier. He made his conducting debut at sixteen at Tanglewood, and conducted Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Akron Lyric Opera.

His musicianship has been enhanced and deepened by extensive collaboration with singers: listening to and working with them has been a source of tremendous inspiration. He studied art song with Gwendolyn Koldofsky and opera with Natalie Limonick, and was an opera and art song coach at UCLA.

A native of southern California, Shapiro began the study of piano at the age of six. His teachers included Leon Fleisher, John Perry, Russell Sherman, Joanna Graudan, and Reginald Stewart. He studied at the University of Southern California and at the Peabody Conservatory, where he received his doctorate.

Shapiro is an expert Scrabble player--he is one of the top ranked players in Ohio, having won or placed in several tournaments. He lives with his family in Cleveland Heights.