Overview
Piano
Julie Bees is professor of piano at Wichita State University. She has performed solo recitals in New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Edinburgh, Glasgow, Vienna, Brussels, The Hague, Leipzig, Milan, Helsinki, Warsaw and St. Petersburg, and has presented recitals and taught master classes in Hungary, Finland, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.
As a collaborative pianist, she is a founding member of the Orfeo Trio and has also performed with the Vermeer Quartet, the St. Petersburg String Quartet, bass-baritone Alan Held, the Viotti Trio, the American Chamber Players and other ensembles and soloists. Her piano students have been successful in competitions at every level and include Christopher Taylor, who won the bronze medal at the 1993 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
She has appeared as concerto soloist with orchestras in Spain, Hong Kong, Denver, Dallas, Augusta, Santa Barbara and New York at Carnegie Hall.
Her competition successes include being a semifinalist in the 1983 Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland; national winner of the 1978 MTNA Collegiate Competition in Chicago; fourth prize in the Washington International Competition for Pianists at the Kennedy Center; first prize in the William S. Boyd National Piano Competition; grand prize of the 1975 International Piano Recording Competition and the 1970 Dallas Symphonic Festival; and finalist in the 1968 New York Philharmonic Auditions for Leonard Bernstein’s televised “Young People’s Concerts.”
A native of Miami, Florida, Dr. Bees graduated cum laude from the Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas. She earned a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from the Johns Hopkins University Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, an Artist Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, Austria, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Colorado. Her teachers include Leon Fleisher, Maria Curcio-Diamand, Dieter Weber, Noel Flores, Alexander Uninsky, Alfred Mouledous, Konrad Wolff, Peggy Neighbors Erwin and Nelita True.
Bachelor of Music in perf. - Johns Hopkins/Peabody Conservatory of Music
Artist Diploma - Hochschule für Musik
Doctor of Musical Arts - University of Colorado