Greetings!
You are invited to three key AMSF events in the next few months, so please mark your calendars and RSVP accordingly. Details are on the website Calendar and in our monthly email announcements.
- Encore Recital: June 29th at 2 p.m.
- 3rd Annual Conference with Nancy Breth: August 24th at 2–5 p.m.
- Annual Party and Meeting: September 14th at 2–5 p.m.
New Cadenza Coordinator
Mark Serrano is our new Cadenza Coordinator. Mark will be organizing Cadenza recitals beginning in October, our new fiscal year. A brief background on Mark can be found below. Please welcome Mark in his new post when you see him.
Renewals
June marks the start of the AMSF annual renewal period. We would appreciate early membership renewals. If possible, please take a few minutes to renew in June, either online or by mail. If you are so inclined, AMSF would be grateful for tax-deductible donations. You can find renew your membership online here.
This Issue
Please check out our:
- Member Spotlight on Stephanie Dailey, a member who joined AMSF in 2024 and has been active ever since.
- Beyond AMSF article on Jung Yeon Kim, our member who straddles between classical and rock music, and does both well.
- Synopsis of What Musicians Can Learn from the Latest in Brain Science with Dr. Molly Gebrian.
Enjoy your summer!
Michelle
Mark Serrano, Incoming Cadenza Coordinator
Mark grew up in the DC/Maryland area and eventually made Fairfax, VA his home. He currently works part-time at the Rock Creek Group, a global investment firm based in Washington, DC. In past lives, he worked at the Carlyle Group and the World Bank (officially known as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development).
He started piano lessons at the age of 8 and hasn’t looked back since — he still takes lessons once a week. He’s a big fan of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff, and he is cautiously optimistic about learning to love impressionist music (it’s a work in progress).
Mark earned his BA in Economics and Music from Knox College, where he studied piano under Charles Farley — whose own musical lineage traces back to Franz Liszt via Ernst von Dohnanyi. While at Knox, Mark was awarded the Janet Greig Post Prize in Music, DJed for the college radio station, and played keyboard for the Knox-Galesburg Symphony for a few seasons.
These days, he studies with Kaisar Anvar (a former student of Boris Berman), who’s also on a mission to help Mark warm up to Debussy and friends.
When he’s not at the piano, Mark enjoys spontaneous road trips, gardening, watching piano performances, and playing tennis and volleyball. He also loves to cook and bake — but, strangely, still hasn’t mastered the fine art of boiling and peeling the perfect egg. Go figure.