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An interview with Jesse Pierson
Music Program Lead, Front Range Community College
Dr. Jesse Pierson is the Music Program
Lead at Front Range Community College
Larimer Campus, as well as college-wide
Online Lead for Music and the Recording
Arts and Technology program. He is active
as a collaborative and solo pianist in the
surrounding community and a dedicated
pedagogue in piano, and music theory.
What is your formal music training?
Was teaching something you studied to do?
I received his Doctorate of Arts from the University of Northern Colorado in
2020 with a focus in Piano Performance and a secondary emphasis in Music
Theory. While it is not directly reflected in my degree, I took classes in Piano
and Music Theory Pedagogy and have always been involved in teaching-focused
organizations. Teaching was always the goal. My dissertation (and many
presentations thereafter) revolve around a teaching index that I created for
music instructors to tie music theory and beginning piano pedagogy together
through standard repertoire.
In a nutshell, what is your teaching
philosophy? What specifically do you
want your students to achieve?
Reinforcement. It’s all about reinforcement and music has centuries of content
to do it with. We have a unique program here in that students vary dramatically
in their music pursuits. It is my passion to show students that the fundamental
aspects of harmony, melody, and rhythm transcend genres. As a class, we can
reinforce every concept within music with examples from wildly different genres,
geographical locations, and compositional approach. Why is Selena Gomez on
the Top 40 radio station and Johan Sebastian Bach is not? That might seem like
a ridiculous comparison, but you’d be surprised how many threads there are that
you can tie together after my classes, and that is exactly my goal.
Are there some music performances coming
that you want to tell us about?
All of these events will also be livestreamed: Community Cello Recital - 10/8 @3
in RP106. MTNA Fall Festival Honors Recital - 11/12 @3 in RP106. FRCC Choir
Concert - 12/1 @7 in Harmony Library. FRCC Studio Recital - 12/8 @6 in RP106.
Cello Recital CAC event–TBD.
28 2022 | AVANTART | ISSUE I