Biography

 CONCERT PIANIST, ALBANY RECORDING ARTIST, EDUCATOR, AUTHOR

Meisha Whitlock is one America’s leading piano recording artists acclaimed by critics for her “calm restraint” and “tempestuous and stormy” artistry (The Preface, Indiana University). Her virtuosity has led to performances across the United States and abroad including Italy, Australia, Africa, and London. As an emerging artist, she won the Paul W. Hagan Concerto Competition and completed a residency as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar at the University of Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music where she lectured and performed throughout the continent. Her first of a series of albums of contemporary piano duo works entitled Piano Duo Project was released by Albany Records and featured on the cover of Fanfare Magazine to rave reviews: “There is sensitivity, rhythmic incisiveness, and palpable joy to their playing…I cannot imagine them played better than this (Fanfare).”  Her album won the Aaron Copland Fund Album of the Year award with Albany Records.

Recently, Dr. Whitlock was honored with a Fulbright award and completed research and performance abroad in Morocco this year with the Fulbright organization.  In 2020, she represented the state of South Carolina as the National Education Association Global Learning Fellow.  With the chosen fellows from other states, she traveled to Washington DC and participated in modules for global education training.  With the team, she traveled to Peru, South America for a field study and a multicultural music expedition in Santiago, Chile.  Last year, after being named a Fund for Teachers Fellow, she traveled across the globe to Ghana, Africa to witness the opening of the Nunya Music Academy building, interact with its students, and learn about the musical styles of West Africa that have impacted, influenced, and changed music around the world as we know it.  

An accomplished pedagogue, Whitlock has presented her research and instructional methodology at national and regional conferences and symposia including those of the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, College Music Society, Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), and Music Educators National Conference (MENC). With an active schedule as clinician, adjudicator, and soloist throughout the nation and abroad, her articles have been published in the Music Educators Journal and the Southern Music Education Journal. A master teacher and dedicated educator, she was awarded the “Lois Bailey Glenn Award for Teaching Excellence” by the National Music Foundation for a grant written for the implementation of an American Music project. She has received additional grant awards from the Community Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, South Carolina Arts Commission, and the Hamels Foundation for innovative educational projects for community music initiatives and the Charleston (SC) and Philadelphia Public Schools.  She was awarded a research travel grant from the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College in Chicago.  The award supported research towards her serving as the editor and authoring the introduction to a new book of piano duo music by William Grant Still Music Publishers.

Dr. Whitlock earned a Performance Diploma from the University of Sydney Conservatorium of Music (Australia), the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy from the University of South Carolina, and the Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana State University in Piano Performance. She also holds a Master of Music degree from the University of South Carolina in Education Administration. She is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM) with the Music Teachers National Association and holds a professional teaching certificate in music and an administrative leadership license with the South Carolina Department of Education. 

She served on faculty at the Capital University Conservatory of Music and Claflin University where she taught all piano courses and music theory.  Each year, she teaches a graduate course at Converse University with the South Carolina Arts Leadership for Success Academy (SCALSA) for Arts teachers that just completed their first to third year of teaching. In Spartanburg School District One she chaired the "Arts in Basic Curriculum" grant and co-chaired the "Distinguished Arts Program" grant where during her 9 year tenure, she wrote and was awarded over $300,000 in grant funding for Arts programs. Dr. Whitlock currently teaches piano at Furman University in the Piano for Young People program. She also owns Meisha Whitlock Music Studio, a thriving piano studio.