About Dr. Olivia Zimmermann

Swiss-American pianist Olivia Zimmermann has performed and taught internationally as well as in the United States. She has given concerts, masterclasses, and private lessons in Switzerland, Norway, Finland, Texas, Louisiana, Illinois, and Kansas. She holds piano performance degrees from the University of Texas at San Antonio, Northwestern University in Chicago, and the University of Kansas.

As a 2013 Fulbright scholar, she studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. There, she researched folk music influences on Sibelius’s piano music under the tutelage of Erik T. Tawaststjerna, whose father was the composer’s personal biographer. Her past teachers include concert pianist Steven Spooner, internationally recognized pedagogue Scott McBride Smith, and award-winning pianist and professor, Alan Chow. She has performed in masterclasses for clinicians Ursula Oppens, William Westney, and Robin McCabe, and has placed in several solo piano competitions throughout high school and college. Her performances have been featured live on KHOU radio in Houston, TX, and on the Great Day SA television show in San Antonio.

Dr. Zimmermann has more than twenty years of teaching experience and is well-versed as an administrator. She served as director for the KU Community Music School, where she also taught private and group classes for KU music majors. While in Finland, she gave lectures and performances for the Fulbright Foundation and taught lessons at the Tyttöyen Talo, a center for at-risk youth in Helsinki. She was on faculty at the Kansas City School of Music, where she helped shape the curriculum in use today.

Currently on faculty at The Music Clubhouse in Lawrence, KS, she maintains a full piano studio and directs the Artist Musician Program. She adjudicates local, regional, and national piano events through the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). Her students consistently receive awards and recognition in MTNA and Sigma Alpha Iota auditions. Dr. Zimmermann currently teaches in the North Kansas City area and in Lawrence, KS.

Education

• Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance, University of Kansas
• Master of Music in Piano Performance, Northwestern University in Chicago
• Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance, University of Texas at San Antonio
• Fulbright research grant, Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, Finland