UGA Piano Day

Grace Huang is Lecturer in Piano Pedagogy and Class Piano Coordinator at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Praised for her “lovely and vivacious” playing (Fort Worth Star- Telegram), she has performed throughout the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Huang has taught on several pre-college and college faculties, including the Cleveland Institute of Music and Millikin University. In demand as a teacher, her students have received honors and acceptances to music programs across the country. She is an active adjudicator and presenter at local, state and national levels, and recently initiated the “Play On, Athens!” public piano project.

Evgeny Rivkin was born in Russia and earned his master’s and doctoral degrees at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he studied with Professor Evgeny Malinin. He has been the recipient of many major awards, including top prizes in the USSR National Piano Competition in 1977, the Sixth International Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow, the Bayerishe Rundfunk Competition in Munich, 1985, and the L. MacMahon International Competition in Lawton, Oklahoma. He has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in Italy, France, Hungary, Germany, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, USA, Canada, Brazil and other countries.

Melodic, soulful and smooth, Dr. Greg Satterthwaite brings an energy and touch to the piano that has become his signature sound.  As a jazz artist, Satterthwaite brings forth improvisational music that speaks to who he is as a performer and composer. His performances are rooted in his passion to continue to uphold the legacy and rich tradition of jazz music and the pioneers and innovators that created such a phenomenal art form.  

Graduating from some of the nation's most prestigious jazz programs, Satterthwaite earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas in Jazz Piano Performance, a Master of Arts in Commercial Music from Florida Atlantic University and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Miami. Satterthwaite is an Assistant Professor of Jazz Piano and African American Studies at the University of Georgia. He has studied with Stephen Scott, Ron Miller, Pat Coil, Dave Meder, Quincy Davis, Brad Leali, and Lynn Seaton. His educational experiences have impacted his teaching philosophy as he brings forth the knowledge, observations, and backgrounds of the educators, artists and creative makers that he has interacted with and learned from over the years. As a scholarly contribution to the field, Satterthwaite presented “Beyond Fourths and Pentatonics: A Critical Analysis of Selected Recordings of McCoy Tyner 1962 to 1963” at the national 2021 Jazz Education Network Conference. 

Before joining the UGA faculty, Liza Stepanova taught at Smith College and The Juilliard School. She holds a DMA from Juilliard and has also studied in Berlin, Germany. In the 2024-2025 season, she performs and teaches at Brevard, Bowdoin, Songfest, and Music in May festivals, holds residencies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Columbus State University, and Wheaton College in Chicago, and continues to tour with the Lysander Piano Trio across the U.S. and in Canada. Stepanova’s most recent solo CD "E Pluribus Unum" (2020) earned her the distinction of New Artist of the Month by Musical America Worldwide and has been praised in International Piano, Piano Magazine, BBC Music Magazine, and Gramophone. Her UGA students regularly win competitions and admission to prestigious summer festivals and graduate programs, and this year, a pre-college student reached the national finals of the MTNA Competition.

Decades long experience with a multitude of notable artists -- from his early days as accompanist to iconic vocalists Abbey Lincoln and Cassandra Wilson, on to his years as a member of M-Base Collective innovator Steve Coleman’s group and music director for the late great Kevin Mahogany, up to his current tenure with saxophonist Joe Lovano’s critically acclaimed nonet and Grammy nominated Us Five band -- has proven pianist/composer/arranger James Weidman to be one of the most versatile artists in music today and prepared him well for his steady emergence as an important bandleader in his own right.

Weidman’s versatility is evidenced in the wide ranging music of the various ensembles that he currently leads: The Aperturistic Trio (with bassist Harvie S and drummer Steve Williams) which explores his own cutting edge original compositions; The Rhythm Keepers (featuring Marvin Horne on guitar), a group in the tradition of Nat King Cole’s classic trio that swings jazz standards out of the Great American Songbook; and Spiritual Impressions, an ensemble including singer Ruth Naomi Floyd that features him doubling on piano and organ performing his own stirring arrangements 19th century Black Spirituals. He also concurrently co-leads the James Weidman-Steve Williams Quartet performing the Music of Clifford Jordan.

Joining the piano faculty at UGA in January 2022, Alan Woo previously taught at Elizabeth City State University and the Peabody Institute. Woo is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Peabody Conservatory, where he completed degrees in piano performance under Robert McDonald and Yong Hi Moon. He made his Lincoln Center debut with the Juilliard Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin and has since made concerto appearances with the Houston and Fort Worth Symphonies. Woo has performed solo recitals throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, and in series such as the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society and La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest as chamber musician.