Dr. Jay A. Hershberger

Pianist Jay Hershberger, president of the American Liszt Society, has played throughout the North American continent, Europe, and Asia. Highlights include the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Library of Congress, and Benaroya Hall in Seattle. He has also been a frequent guest artist at the Great Romantics Music Festival in Ontario, Canada. He has performed in Europe, most recently in Finland and Scotland, and has appeared in European festivals such as the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in southern Italy and the South Bohemia Music Festival in the Czech Republic. He has toured China, performing and giving piano masterclasses in Hong Kong, Zhouhai, Chong-Ching, Chengdu, and Beijing. An avid chamber music advocate, he recently formed Duo Vivo! with cellist Gregory Hamilton, and their 2021-22 season engagements include the Oracle Chamber Music Festival in Arizona, as well as venues in Minnesota and North Dakota. He is also a founding member of Excelsior! Trio (flute, saxophone, piano), which was named Class Notes Artists by Minnesota Public Radio. He is currently Professor of Piano at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, and was previously Visiting Assistant Professor of Piano at Arizona State University. His undergraduate students have won competitions and have been accepted into prestigious graduate schools in piano performance and pedagogy, many with teaching assistantships. An active adjudicator, Hershberger has judged for the Chicago International Piano Competition, the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, the Los Angeles International Young Musicians Piano Competition, the Franz Liszt International Piano Festival and Competition, the Phoenix Young Artist Competition, the San Angelo Symphony Sorantin Awards, the Music Teachers National Association state and regional performance competitions, the Lee Biennial Competition, and the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Young Artist Competition. His compact disc recording Transfigured Shadows, featuring works by Franz Liszt, was featured on Michael Barone’s New Releases radio program on Minnesota Public Radio. He received degrees in piano from Arizona State University, Wichita State University, and the University of Tulsa. His principal teachers were Robert Hamilton, Robert Roux, and Boaz Sharon. He also coached extensively with Luiz de Moura Castro.