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Born
and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pianist
Aron Kallay began his music
education at the age of ten. After several years
with a neighborhood piano teacher, he was accepted
into the Music Preparatory School at Carnegie Mellon
University where he studied with Professor Nelson
Whittaker and took classes in composition and
theory. In 1995, Aron began his college career at
Carnegie Mellon, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine
Arts in Piano Performance, and a Certificate in
Piano Pedagogy. He was then accepted on a full
assistantship to the University of Michigan, where
he received a Master of Music in Piano Performance
and Pedagogy. In 2008, Aron completed the coursework
and passed his written and oral examinations with
distinction for the Doctor of Musical Arts at the
University of Southern California. In April 2009, he
will graduate with minors in 20th and 21st Century
Music Theory, Composition, and Electroacoustic
Media. Aron has been inducted into the Phi Kappa
Phi and Pi Kappa Lamda national honor
societies for his exceptional academic achievements.
Aron has studied with Ralph Zitterbart, Louis
Nagel, Thomas Mastroianni, and Daniel Pollack. He is
an award-winning solo and chamber musician who has
performed throughout the United States, as well as
in the Czech Republic and Ukraine. His performances
have been broadcast around the world on the
syndicated radio program International Music
from Carnegie Mellon, and, in March 2009, he
will perform on KPFK's Global Village. Aron
has dedicated his performance career to the
promotion of new music, giving several world
premieres, including most recently two of Kyle
Gann's works for microtonal synthesizer.
While at USC, Aron began working with
electroacoustic media. Faced with a dearth of modern
ensemble music for his students, he composed a
series of didactic piano pieces with electronic
accompaniments. Over time, he became so enamored of
the sonic palette of the electroacoustic medium that
it became his compositional focus. Aron's
compositions include works for solo instruments and
small ensembles, and often involve electronic
components. Recently, he began interdisciplinary
creative work, and, in 2008, collaborated with
visual artist Mores McWreath on the video
installation The Bud, the Seed, the Egg,
which premiered at the Roski Gallery in Los Angeles.
Aron is also an experienced music educator. From
1999 to 2001, he taught group piano classes and
private lessons as a teaching assistant in the
University of Michigan's secondary piano program and
preparatory school. From 2001 to 2005, he maintained
a highly successful piano studio in Washington, DC.
Aron also designed and implemented a music theory
course for pre-college students at the Academy of
Music in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where he was the
director of the Music Theory Program. From 2006 to
2008, Aron was a teaching assistant for renowned
professors Daniel Pollack and Dennis Thurmond at
USC. His responsibilities included running weekly
studio master classes, working with students
individually, and helping to prepare recitals in the
Electroacoustic Media program. In 2009, Aron will be
joining the faculty of the University of Southern
California as an Adjunct Instructor in the Keyboard
Department.
Currently, he divides his time between
practicing, performing, composing, writing about
music theory and piano pedagogy, and teaching. Learn
more about him at his website:
www.aronkallay.com.
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