SU's Joao Casarotti selected as judge for international piano committee

Southern University's Music Professor Joao Casarotti has been chosen to be one of two judges to be part of an international piano evaluation committee in Taiwan this summer.

Casarotti will join the International Piano Performance Examinations Committee (IPPEC) to travel through Taiwan evaluating around 1,200 pianists, ranging from age five to 25.

"I am super excited for this invitation. I will be immersed in the Asian piano world. I will be meeting hundreds of students and piano teachers around Taiwan," said Casarotti.

Every year IPPEC selects two judges from important music institutions around the world to evaluate Taiwanese piano students and talk with students, parents and teachers. An interpreter travels with the judges to provide a line of communication with the students and parents for assessments on the students' performances.

Casarotti will take the opportunity, while in Taiwan, to speak with students about Southern's piano program. "I am planning some performance, master classes and lectures at high schools and universities as an effort to recruit Asian students to our piano program at SU."

The Brazilian pianist and teacher, Casarotti received his Master of Music in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy from Temple University and M. M. in Piano Pedagogy from the University of North Dakota. He earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Performance from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and a Performance Diploma from the "Maestro Ernst Mahle" Music School of Piracicaba-Brazil.

IPPEC, started in 1989, provides a graded system of examinations in music, based in Taiwan by providing not only quality music examinations, but also educative services to the teachers, students, and music lectures.