Dr. Stuart Foster
Stuart Foster has been teaching piano and performing as a freelance solo and collaborative pianist/organist for 30 years. He is new to Scottsdale and the Southwest, being originally from Maryland and having spent most of the previous 16 years in Michigan. Stuart is a long-time church musician, with ten years as the pianist for a Unitarian church, and two years as organist for a Christian Science church, among other positions. He has extensive experience accompanying students for festivals, competitions, recitals, and auditions; playing for school, church, and professional choirs and musical theater groups and opera; and playing keyboard, guitar, horn, and singing in local bands.
Stuart has music degrees from Cornell University (where he studied with renowned
fortepianist/pianist Malcolm Bilson), the University of Arkansas (Dale Millen and Alan Chow), and Louisiana State University, where he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree (as a student of Jack Guerry). His dissertation is an analysis of Haydn keyboard sonatas, written under music theory professor David Smyth (Stuart is a confessed music theory nerd). He is currently working on a presentation about humor in the music of Beethoven.
Stuart is an active member of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), the Arizona State Music Teachers Association (ASMTA), the Phoenix Music Teachers Association (PMTA), and the National Federation of Music Clubs. He encourages student participation in the festivals, competitions, and other performance opportunities offered by these and other groups.
As a pianist, Stuart strongly supports the ongoing lobbying effort to have musicians be paid by the note.