Piano Section Adjudicator
Dr Diane Baxter
Diane Baxter has performed as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral pianist throughout the USA, Canada, Japan and France. Her training is primarily from a long tradition of Hungariateachers, including Bela Boszormenyi-Nagy and Gyorgy Sebok. Diane is the Principal Keyboard Artist for the Newport Symphony Orchestra on the Oregon Coast. She has appeared as soloist with the Cascade Festival of Music Orchestra, the Western Oregon Symphony Orchestra, the Newport Symphony Orchestra and the Oregon Mozart Players.
Her solo CD, Alive at Dawn, was produced in 2003 by Teal Creek Records. A recording by Parma Records of Kevin Walczyk’s “A Goodbye Too Soon”, with Baxter as soloist, was distributed in 2015
by Parma Records on an album called “Pinnacles”. Diane is currently Professor of Music at Western Oregon University where she has received the Faculty Honors Award for Outstanding Creativity and the Mario and Alma Pastego Award for Excellence in Teaching.
She regularly teaches courses in Ethnomusicology, Graduate Research Methods, Performance Anxiety and Studio Piano. Diane’s article on music and the brain “The Science of Artistry: The Fourth String” was recently published in the international journal, Clavier Companion. She is currently the editor of Oregon Musician, a publication for the Music Teachers National Association, Oregon Chapter.
Dr. Baxter is a nationally certified piano teacher and is a consultant on excellence in performance for people in many fields. She frequently gives workshops on performance anxiety for students and teachers and adjudicates for piano competitions and festivals around the northwest United States.