My entire life has been spent in the wonderful field of classical music. My pre-college piano training came from a graduate of the Juilliard School who studied with Rosina Lhevinne. I later earned my BM degree from the Oberlin Conservatory with Sedmara Rutstein and my MM and DM degrees from The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music with Michel Block. I am a winner of the Rome Festival Orchestra Competition, a Bösendorfer Concert Artist, and have recorded on Capstone Records. I have also written articles for Clavier, Clavier Companion, Piano Magazine, American Music Teacher, and Pianoforte. I am a co-author of A Symposium for Pianists and Teachers: Strategies for Developing the Mind and Body for Optimal Performance (Heritage Music Press / Lorenz) used at over forty prominent universities as their primary piano pedagogy text and, most recently, the author of The Transposed Musician: Teaching Universal Skills to Improve Performance and Benefit Life (GIA Publications). 

I pioneered the use of slow-motion video analysis of motion at the piano keyboard in 1980s. Since then, my research has been the topic of PBS and NBC affiliate television specials, used in the manufacturing and data entry industry to reduce repetitive motion injury, featured multiple times at PAMA (Performing Arts Medicine Association) as part of the Aspen Festival of Music, and used as required reading at the Eastman School of Music. I have presented lectures and lecture-demonstrations in over 40 state, national, and international conferences on topics as diverse as music wellness, entrepreneurship, teaching universal skills to STEM disciplines through live performance, and pattern recognition and communicating story for data analysts using piano performance.

I have created a consulting business called What’s Music Got To Do With It? (whatsmusicgottodowithit.com) where I use live keyboard performance to teach shared concepts and skills to executives and people in businesses. Clients have included: State Farm, Lucent Technologies, French Telecom, Bank One, Eli Lilly, Colgate University, Indiana University International School of Business, Carolinas Medical, Triple-A Auto Club, VF Corp., and many others.

I have been a piano professor for well over two decades and currently teach at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. For me, a university teaching career has provided just the right balance of creative work (performing, writing, speaking) and teaching. When I am not involved in music or reading, I love to be outdoors doing things like hiking, skiing, biking, or canoeing.

about Dylan Savage