Piano Studio of Becky Billock
full artist bio
In addition to an active performing career, Dr. Billock maintains a thriving teaching studio. She has been teaching piano for nearly 30 years, having started teaching at the age of 12.
Ms. Billock's early teaching experiences were in Idaho, and subsequently in Zaragoza, Spain where she taught lessons both privately in her home as well as in the community center on the US Air Base. She taught in the Piano Preparatory Division at Walla Walla College from 1993 to 1997, becoming the assistant director of the program in 1994. Her students won gold and silver medals at local and regional competitions and festivals, including a solo performance with the Oregon East Symphony. While studying at University of Redlands she served on the faculty of the Redlands Community Music School. From 1998 to 2003 Ms. Billock taught privately in Seattle, Washington, where her students won numerous Musical Merit Awards through the Seattle Music Teachers Association.
Ms. Billock currently serves on the piano faculty of Grove City College. She works one-on-one with the majority of the piano majors and minors at the school, helping them prepare for their degree recitals, for competitions both at the college and elsewhere, and for graduate school auditions. She also maintains a private studio in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA. Her students have been chosen for awards and honors including Dorothy Sutton Performance Festival at both the local and state levels, the Duquesne Young Artist Piano Festival and the Steinway Society Young Artist program. Many of her students have appeared as soloists with the Pittsburgh Concertino Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Billock is a sought-after adjudicator in the greater Pittsburgh area, having judged for the Pittsburgh Piano Teachers competition, Streator Smith competition, Dorothy Sutton Festival, PMTA Westmoreland Chapter Sonatina Competition, Thursday Music Club of Wheeling Young Artist Auditions, Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra Concerto Competition, Steinway Society Collegiate Young Artist Competition, and others. She has also given presentations on women composers both locally and nationally, including the Pennsylvania Music Teachers State Convention, the International Festival of Women Composers, and the Congress for the International Alliance of Women in Music.
Ms. Billock also engages her students in educational and outreach programs. To name a few, in Spring 2008 Ms. Billock collaborated with seven of her students in a presentation focusing on American Women Composers for the Pittsburgh Piano Teachers Association. In the Fall of both 2010 and 2011, she took several students to participate in a musical outreach program for the Clarion Valley school district. In 2013 and 2014 she participated in community engagement projects with Trio Nova Mundi in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and multiple cities across Mexico. In March 2020 Ms. Billock will be collaborating with her private students to present a program for Pittsburgh Piano Teachers highlighting and featuring the pedagogical and concert literature of the composer Marion Bauer.
Ms. Billock's early teaching experiences were in Idaho, and subsequently in Zaragoza, Spain where she taught lessons both privately in her home as well as in the community center on the US Air Base. She taught in the Piano Preparatory Division at Walla Walla College from 1993 to 1997, becoming the assistant director of the program in 1994. Her students won gold and silver medals at local and regional competitions and festivals, including a solo performance with the Oregon East Symphony. While studying at University of Redlands she served on the faculty of the Redlands Community Music School. From 1998 to 2003 Ms. Billock taught privately in Seattle, Washington, where her students won numerous Musical Merit Awards through the Seattle Music Teachers Association.
Ms. Billock currently serves on the piano faculty of Grove City College. She works one-on-one with the majority of the piano majors and minors at the school, helping them prepare for their degree recitals, for competitions both at the college and elsewhere, and for graduate school auditions. She also maintains a private studio in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA. Her students have been chosen for awards and honors including Dorothy Sutton Performance Festival at both the local and state levels, the Duquesne Young Artist Piano Festival and the Steinway Society Young Artist program. Many of her students have appeared as soloists with the Pittsburgh Concertino Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Billock is a sought-after adjudicator in the greater Pittsburgh area, having judged for the Pittsburgh Piano Teachers competition, Streator Smith competition, Dorothy Sutton Festival, PMTA Westmoreland Chapter Sonatina Competition, Thursday Music Club of Wheeling Young Artist Auditions, Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra Concerto Competition, Steinway Society Collegiate Young Artist Competition, and others. She has also given presentations on women composers both locally and nationally, including the Pennsylvania Music Teachers State Convention, the International Festival of Women Composers, and the Congress for the International Alliance of Women in Music.
Ms. Billock also engages her students in educational and outreach programs. To name a few, in Spring 2008 Ms. Billock collaborated with seven of her students in a presentation focusing on American Women Composers for the Pittsburgh Piano Teachers Association. In the Fall of both 2010 and 2011, she took several students to participate in a musical outreach program for the Clarion Valley school district. In 2013 and 2014 she participated in community engagement projects with Trio Nova Mundi in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and multiple cities across Mexico. In March 2020 Ms. Billock will be collaborating with her private students to present a program for Pittsburgh Piano Teachers highlighting and featuring the pedagogical and concert literature of the composer Marion Bauer.
Photo credit: from Foxburg's Progress News Becky Billock uses a giant crocheted hamburger to demonstrate musical form to school children in the Clarion Valley School District. October 2010 Read news article |
Ms. Billock giving a presentation to kids in Foxburg, PA. October 2011 |
Ms. Billock presenting for the Pittsburgh Piano Teachers Association. March 2008.
|
With Trio Nova Mundi
Educational outreach/community engagement in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe September 2013 |