ABOUT CHARLES ASCHBRENNER

Recently retired from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, after a career of 45 years, Charles Aschbrenner now holds the appointment of Adjunct Professor Emeritus of Music. He has lectured and performed both as soloist and collaborative pianist throughout Michigan and the Midwest as well as in Mexico, Portugal, France, and Russia. With degrees from Illinois and Yale he continued his studies with renowned teachers Nadia Boulanger in France and Adele Marcus in New York City. He has presented lecture-recitals numerous times on the composers Chopin and Schumann, most recently on Robert Schumann’s Carnaval. tt His piano students have entered graduate programs throughout the country and ultimately have entered careers in teaching, performance, church work, and opera and musical theater direction. Also a licensed instructor from the New York Dalcroze School of Music in 1974, Aschbrenner continues to teach the required Eurhythmics component of the music and dance major programs at Hope College. Additionally trained in the Taubman, Alexander and Feldenkrais work, Charles Aschbrenner has long been interested in the use of the body in its most efficient, unified and creative manner leading to a virtuoso and musical technique free of limitations, stiffness, pain and injury. His innovative presentation “Pulse Patterning for Pianists” was first given nationally at the 1993 national conference of Music Teachers National Association in Spokane, and has continued to serve as a basis for articles, a website, and presentations at international conferences, most recently for MTNA in Toronto, World Piano Pedagogy Conference in Las Vegas and for European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA) in Novi Sad, Serbia. In June, 2008, Aschbrenner presented workshops at the 23rd Annual Music Institute for Piano Pedagogy at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. more about EARLY YEARS