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About Casper Masiarek
Hello! I’m a Cary native and soon-to-be music major at UNC Greensboro this fall. I’ve been studying piano for over 5 years and have training in musical styles ranging from classical to jazz to contemporary. Piano became my passion and first love when I began playing in 2019 and quickly started taking lessons: I discovered that I had an insatiable appetite for learning about music.
I have studied under USC Thornton doctoral student Colin McDearman for most of my time playing music. Colin is both a brilliant pianist and an extremely thoughtful and refined person. My musical knowledge and skill is certainly attributable to studying under Colin, and so I’d say is a large portion of my character. He showed me the transformative nature of art which gave me the tools to define myself today. My ultimate goal with piano is to have the same effect on others as Colin had on me.
This fall I begin my studies as a piano performance major at UNC Greensboro. I plan to use my degree to teach and open a music school. Teaching is a way for me to combine all the things which are most important to me: art, my community, and helping others.
One of my best qualities as a young adult is an appreciation for the arts stemming from my musical experience. Art contains the experiences and perspectives of infinitely varied peoples, imparting the awareness and consideration needed for being a positive influence for the people around you. I’ve seen the direct impact of art on my character which is what motivates me to learn more and involve myself to bring art to others.
Besides music, a way a like to spend my time is woodworking. I’m being very careful with my fingers around all the sharp tools! If I change my mind about music, I’ll probably build houses or start a carpentry business.
Musical Background
I attended the Brevard Music Center during the summer of 2022. It was my first experience of complete immersion in music – I loved the environment. My 6 week stay included nightly concerts where I gained an appreciation of orchestral music, and also weekly classes in theory, music history, and music literature. I had the opportunity to work with many great artists including Terrence Wilson, Donna Lee, and Jihye Chang.
In my freshman year of high school, I joined the school orchestra playing violin. Despite having no prior string experience, eventually became concertmaster of the chamber ensemble and stuck with violin for all 4 years. Playing in an ensemble is much different than piano and I learned about how all the different parts fit in to a piece of music. We played chamber music every week which was my introduction to playing within a smaller ensemble.
I was the pianist for the Cantabile piano quartet in NCCMI during the 2022-2023 school year. My musical colleagues and I performed at various community outreach events as well as competitions. Our quartet received the superior rating at the Federation competition prelims for our performance of the Mozart g minor piano quartet and Le Beau piano quartet.
I began tutoring piano for a volunteer organization in the Fall of 2020. I taught online over zoom until next year when the event ended, and a student asked me to continue teaching them as their private teacher. Over the following years I would grow my studio and learn a lot about teaching and working with students. I found that teaching beginners developed my own understanding of the basic concepts of music: for example, I intuitively understood the concept of rhythm but to teach it I had to learn to be descriptive in the way I talk about music.
I conducted the world premiere of my own composition, my Jardin Caché d’Ann, in May of 2023 with the GHHS Symphony Orchestra. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to premiere my work, and since it was in my own orchestra class, I was able to lead the rehearsals every week. Organizing the behind the scenes work was incredibly rewarding and I learned a lot about orchestration and specific rules for instruments and bowings for strings. I also needed to learn how to conduct for the performance which I found that I enjoyed a lot.
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