Hall of Fame Member Biographies

Jane Magrath

The Fine Arts give a people meaning, fulfillment, and understanding. The people of Oklahoma have been indeed fortunate that in their midst has resided one of the most gifted and impressive pianists in the nation, Professor Jane Magrath of the University of Oklahoma. For thirty-six years she has taught piano pedagogy at OU, and has delivered workshops, presentations, and papers in nearly every state in the nation and in most of the capitals of the world. She authored The Pianist's Guide to Standard Teaching and Performance Literature in 1995, and introduced a leveling system of learning piano that is now a standard widely used throughout the nation. Jane Magrath earned a Bachelor's in Music from Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, in 1968; her Masters from the University of North Carolina, and her Doctorate in 1982 from Northwestern University; she undertook additional study in Switzerland in 1975 and 1984. She began her university career in Richmond, Virginia, and then at Meredith College in North Carolina in the 1970s before coming to OU in 1981. She advanced to associate professor and then professor by 1992. Over the years she compiled an extraordinary record of success in advancing ideas of piano pedagogy through publication, presentations, and workshops. She has served as a keynote artisUclinician at 30 state Music Teachers National Association conventions and was the keynote presenter at two national conventions (2013, 2014). She has been the Director since 2011 of the Classical Music Festival Piano Seminar in Eisenstadt, Austria. In 1992 she was the Rilda Bee Cliburn Lecturer in Piano at the Cliburn Institute in Fort Worth. The nations in which she has given presentations include Australia, Canada, Italy, Korea, Portugal, New Zealand, Austria, and Norway. She has published or edited fifteen book series on piano performance as well as numerous articles. Besides having given numerous recitals, Jane Magrath has been adjudicator of some twenty-five piano festivals and competitions. As an instructor at OU she has been the director or co-director of fifty-nine Ph.D. dissertations or OMA documents. This enormous body of work has resulted in numerous awards: OU Regents' Award for Superior Teaching (1988), Rinsland Award, Excellence in Educational Research (2000), Music Teachers' National Association Frances Clark Award (2001), Oklahoma Distinguished Musician (2002), Oklahoma Music Teachers Association Teacher of the Year (2003), Mccasland Foundation Presidential Professor (1997 to 2001), Rothbaum Presidential Professor in the Arts (2001), OU Regents Professor (2007), Neustadt Award for Outstanding Service to University of Oklahoma Students (2009), and Music Teachers' National Association Foundation Fellow (2011). Her record is exemplary, and for her influence state-wide, nationally, and internationally, in promoting excellence in piano performance and teaching, the OHEHS is proud to induct Jane Magrath into the 2016 Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame.