Steven Bianchi

Steven Bianchi is the Director of the Amherst School of Music, Inc., where he also teaches the piano and administers its programs.

Regarded as one of Western New York’s premiere music educators, Bianchi has produced numerous students who frequently have been prizewinners at regional, national and international competitions as pianists and composers. Also, many have been awarded scholarships for their university studies in music. One of his students, Charles Czarnecki, was awarded first prize at the Bartok/Kabalevsky competition, in Radford, Virginia. Another student, Dan Castellani won the Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra Piano Competition and earned the opportunity to perform The Grieg concerto with this orchestra in the fall of 1999. In 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2004 Bianchi's students were awarded the top prize given by the Music Forum for Piano Teachers of Western New York, a scholarship for university study.

Bianchi began taking piano lessons at the age of seven with Estelle Seifert of Williamsville. He then began teaching in 1975 and in 1978 was awarded an apprenticeship in piano performance and pedagogy at the Bradley Institute for Music Education Research at the age of eighteen where he studied with Harold Bradley (1906-1984). Bradley had studied with two of the great legendary pianists from the Golden Age of Pianism, Isidor Philipp (1863-1958) and Mark Hambourg (1879-1960). Thus, Bianchi absorbed the French, Russian and German piano traditions through his association with Bradley. Then studies with Norman Anderson at the Guildhall School of Music in London, England and further studies at the University of Buffalo, with Professor Frina Boldt, resulted in a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and a Master of Arts degree in music history, both from UB. During these years, Bianchi also studied jazz harmony and arranging with the renowned jazz accordionist and pianist, Russ Messina. Bianchi's Masters thesis on the noted Niagara Falls, NY composer, John Pierce Langs (1882-1967), is the definitive study of the composer and his works and an important contribution to American Music History. Bianchi has subsequently established the John Pierce Langs International Piano Competition, which debuted in 1994 and has drawn competitors from all over the world. A frequent judge for music festivals, Bianchi also was President of the New York Federation of Music Clubs, District 8 and chairman of its annual Junior Festival from 1988 until 2012. Last year, he once again presented a lecture on Community Level Music Teaching at Houghton College.

As composer, his piece, Three Pieces for Jack, received its world premiere in June of 2001 at Buffalo State College’s Rockwell Hall. Bianchi performed it while dancers from Maris Battaglia’s American Academy of Ballet danced her choreography of this work. This ballet was presented once more at Chautauqua Institution in their amphitheater. It is a solo piano work devoted to his brother Jack who died in 1972 of cancer at the age of seven. The three movements are titled: 1. Childhood 2. Funeral March 3. Afterlife.

Listen to a selection from Three Pieces for Jack (240K MP3)

He has performed for the Amherst Youth Ballet and in the June recitals for the American Academy of Ballet for the past seven years. Bianchi is also involved in writing a series of pieces and excersises for young pianists.

In 2012, he performed at UB in the May recitals for the American Academy of Ballet a piece called Tango which he composed earlier in the year. It was also presented at the Chautauqua Institution in their amphitheater in August of 2012.

Recently a music video was made of Bianchi and the renowned guitarist Mir Ali playing an arrangement of Bianchi's Tango in A minor, posted on www.celestiallynxcinema.com.

After 43 years of teaching the piano, Bianchi has the rare distinction of having given more that 100,000 half hour piano lessons! As a result, he has begun to write a book devoted to piano pedagogy, which will be aimed at helping the new piano teacher acquire efficient and effective piano teaching skills quickly.