Carole L. Bigler

Internationally-acclaimed piano pedagogue and lecturer, Carole L. Bigler is a faculty member and coordinator of the Master's Degree Program in Suzuki Piano Pedagogy at Ithaca College, New York. Since 1974, she has traveled world-wide presenting seminars on the psychology of learning, piano pedagogy and the Suzuki Method. She is the Vice President of More Than Music Inc., Ontario, Canada and for the past twenty years has been the co-director of an international music festival for music teachers and students held on the campus of Queen's University, Canada. A member of the International Platform Association, she is noted for her stimulating lectures and keen insights into teacher-parent-child relationships.

She has co-authored five books with Valery Lloyd-Watts. Their first book, Studying Suzuki Piano: More Than Music (Summy-Birchard Inc., Warner Bros. Publications, 1979) is a comprehensive text that interprets, organizes and applies the Suzuki approach to piano. It has been translated and published in Germany, Korea and Japan. Their subsequent books, More Than Music: Master Class Series Volumes I and II (More Than Music, Inc., Kingston, Ontario, 1984, 1985) and Applause Lesson Plans, Book On (Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., Van Nuys, California, 1989) outline detailed lesson plans for teaching specific piano repertoire. Their latest book, Ornamentation, written with the assistance of Willard A. Palmer, is a question and answer manual that presents a clear, concise approach for realizing ornaments in all eras of music (Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., 1995). Their other Alfred publications include Everybody's Perfect Masterpieces, a four volume set of graded piano repertoire and Recital Winners, Volumes I and II, and Recital Gems, Books 1 and 2, both compilations of exciting performance pieces, with accompanying recordings for both collections. She has also published articles in Clavier Magazine, Strad Magazine, the American Suzuki Journal, and Suzuki World Magazine

As a Suzuki piano specialist, Ms. Bigler has taught pedagogy at major universities throughout the United States and Canada, has given presentations at national, state and local conferences for the Music Teachers National Association, Inc. and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto. In 1992 and 1995, she was the principal guest tutor for The Suzuki Talent Education Association in Australia and New Zealand in 1993. A registered teacher trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas and former member of its Board of Directors, she has studied Suzuki pedagogy with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki and has been teaching Suzuki piano since 1971. An honors graduate in music from Syracuse University, New York, she studied piano with Sidney Sukoenig, George Pappe- Stavrou, Ernst Bacon and organ with Arthur Poister. Upon graduation, she taught music in the New York State school system and did graduate work at Ithaca College with further graduate studies at Cornell University and Elmira College.