Maeve Berry attends the 2024 TSM Academy courtesy of the Jane Stephenson Fellowship.
Hometown: Renfrew, Pennsylvania
A versatile and energetic musician, Maeve Berry is a pianist, music theory teacher, and vocal coach currently based in Rochester, NY. She originally hails from just north of Pittsburgh, PA, where she grew up as a regular recitalist and avid chorister. She is the Resident Pianist at Pittsburgh Opera for the 2024-2025 season.
As a recitalist, Ms. Berry has appeared at various summer festivals including The Franz-Schubert-Institut, Brevard Music Center, Songfest, Toronto Summer Music Festival, and Source Song Festival. She also has been a part of concert series including the Butler County Symphony Summer Lunchtime Concerts, Penn State Honors Music Institute, Music at the George Eastman House, and the Cleveland Trombone Institute. Her collaborative partners include Alexandra Rose Hotz, soprano, Susannah Stewert, soprano, Bergsvein Toverud, tenor, Christina Tanisch-Smith, soprano, and Mark Lusk, trombone.
Ms. Berry has studied song repertoire with acclaimed musicians including Elly Ameling, Roger Vignoles, Julius Drake, Helmut Deutsch, Wolfram Rieger, Graham Johnson, Martin Katz, Warren Jones, Margot Garrett, Andreas Schmidt, Brigid Steinberger, and Robert Holl. She has also worked with esteemed composers including Jake Heggie, Libby Larsen, Tom Cipullo, Ben Moore, David Conte, and John Musto. Her most recent project included a complete performance of Tom Cipullo’s vocal and piano cantata, “A Visit with Emily,” during her first doctoral recital in May 2022.
Growing up in western Pennsylvania, Maeve began her piano studies at the age of 5. She holds a bachelor’s degree in piano performance as well as a Master of Music in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music from the Eastman School of Music. Ms. Berry is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts at Eastman where she serves not only as a studio accompanying graduate assistant but also as a music theory teaching assistant. Her instructors include David Allen Wehr, Dr. Christopher Guzman, and Dr. Andrew Harley.
While at Eastman, Ms. Berry has received several awards for excellence in vocal collaboration including Barbara M. Koeng award and the Jean Barr Award. Along with these academic awards, she also won the pianist prize in the 2023 Jessie Kneisel Lieder Competition with her two singers Meg Brilleslyper (1st vocal prize) and Alexandra Rose Hotz (2nd vocal prize).
During her master’s degree, Ms. Berry completed an Advanced Certificate in Music Theory Pedagogy; she also was a teaching assistant in music theory, teaching first year written theory online. In her doctorate, she will continue to teach this year in the field of aural skills for second year students in person after completing a year teaching first year students.
Ms. Berry began her research in the Spring of 2022 on song repertoire by Sergei Rachmaninoff under the direction of Dr. Sarah Marlowe. Her culminating lecture degree recital will focus on tonal trends in Rachmaninoff’s song literature.
In recent years, Ms. Berry has excelled in the field of vocal coaching; she was accepted as an alternate into the NATS Intern program in 2022 and 2023. Maeve has pursued vocal coaching advice with Dr. Russell Miller, Alison d’Amato, Erika Switzer, Steven Philcox, Arlene Shrut, and Kayo Iwama. In addition to having a passion for coaching, Ms. Berry also has experience in varied languages such as German, French, Swedish, and Italian.
From a young age, Ms. Berry took interest in not only studying piano but also studying organ and voice. Both of these outlets have been fueled by her participation in church services of all denominations since age 7. Ms. Berry is currently a choral scholar at Church of the Ascension in Rochester, NY, and she sings a weekly compline service with Christ Church Rochester’s Schola Cantorum under the direction of Stephen Kennedy. Ms. Berry also performed as the organist for Duruflé Requiem with the Hobart Williams Smith Community Chorus in April of 2023.