Fine Arts at Northwestern

Dr. Ling-Yu Kan

Keyboard Studies

Assistant Professor of Music
Keyboard Studies
Office: Fine Arts 315
Telephone: 580-327-8690
Email: lykan@nwosu.edu

Dr. Ling-Yu Alice Kan, Assistant Professor of Music at the Northwestern Oklahoma State University, is actively performing as a soloist and collaborative artist.  Dr. Kan received her fundamental musical training in Taiwan.  She participated in the Special-Talent Program starting at age nine and received her BA degree from the National Taipei University of the Arts under Mrs. Kuo-Yuan Lee and Dr. Rolf-Peter Wille.  Inspired by Mr. Vladimir Viardo, she came to University of North Texas in 1999 to pursue further study, where she earned her MM degree in piano performance.  In 2001, she toured with the UNT A Cappella Choir in Texas and performed at the Murchison Performing Arts Center at UNT, under renowned conductor Dr. Jerry McCoy.  Dr. Kan was chosen as the rehearsal pianist of the UNT Grand Chorus for Britten's War Requiem, Mozart's Coronation Mass and Beethoven's Ode to Joy. In 2002, she performed "Shap Rin," which garnered Kazu Shiota third prize in a composition competition sponsored by Voice Exchange in Dallas, TX.  Before teaching at NWOSU, Dr. Kan was a teaching fellow at the College of Music from 2002-2006 and was the recipient of several UNT graduate study and College of Music scholarships. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts in May 2007.

Dr. Kan’s love of music has brought her to three continents.  Since 1997, Dr. Kan has participated in summer school at the Moscow Conservatory, the International Music Festival in Prague and the Summit Music Festival in New York, where she won third place in its Concerto Competition.  She has studied with Natalia Trull, Naum Starkmann and Vladimir Viardo and has played master classes under Alexei Nasedkin and Lev Naumov.

Dr. Kan has been in high demand in collaborative performances at UNT. Besides playing for student recitals, a recent opportunity includes the honorable invitation to perform Schubert's “Divertissiment sur des motifs originaux français in E minor, D.823” alongside renowned pianist Gustavo Romero.  This faculty showcase was one of seven performances in the Schubert Concert Series at the University of North Texas in the fall of 2005.  On April 2, 2006, Dr. Kan played Poulenc's Two Piano Concerto with Gustavo Romero and Ai-Kuang Sun's Dallas Asian American Youth Orchestra (DAAYO) at the Eisemann Center in Richardson, TX.  In the summer of 2004 and 2005, Dr. Kan served as the staff pianist at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria.  That experience as well as extensive study with Mr. Harold Heiberg and Dr. Elvia Puccinelli in collaborative piano increased her interest and passion in further study of song literature. Their sublime spirit and constant encouragement have helped tremendously in her music making.

In the spring of 2008, Dr. Kan will perform collaborative concerts in the states with the renowned baritone Dr. Jeffrey Snider (chair of the voice department at UNT) and with Dr. Rodney Murrow (former music faculty at NWOSU) on two pianos.  In June 2008, she will perform with Dr. Chien-Tai Hsu (DMA in violin performance from the University of Maryland) at the recital hall of the National Concert Hall in Taiwan.  She is also presenting her solo concert at NWOSU this season.