(back to faculty list)

Claire Wachter
(541) 346-3758
cwachter@uoregon.edu

Claire Wachter is an associate professor of piano and piano pedagogy, and serves as chair of the piano department at the University of Oregon. She holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Maryland and the University of Texas at Austin. Her teachers include John Perry, Carlo Zecchi, Nancy Garrett, Tinka Knopf, and Julio Esteban. She has been coached by Leon Fleisher, Lorin Hollander, and Paul Jacobs.

Wachter has appeared in solo and concerto concerts throughout the United States, including performances with the Oregon Symphony, Eugene Symphony, and Oregon Mozart Players. She has appeared internationally in concerts in Austria, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, and Canada, and has been a recitalist with the Oregon Bach Festival, the Utah Festival, the Russian River Festival (CA), and the Rome Festival (Italy). She has been a collaborative artist in chamber music concerts with members of the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Wachter frequently appears in duo-piano concerts with Dean Kramer. Together they have performed in the United States, Japan, and Taiwan. She has served as principal keyboard with the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, the Rome Festival Orchestra, and the Eugene Symphony.

She has performed and lectured at the MTNA National Conferences in Dallas (1997) and Kansas City (2004). Wachter chaired The Committee on the Future of Piano Pedagogy for the World Piano Pedagogy Conference in Orlando and Las Vegas (2000–2002, and 2004). In addition, she has presented master classes at universities in the U.S. and Canada.

Wachter has been a member of the piano faculties of the University of Texas at Austin and the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. She was music critic for the Eugene Register-Guard from 1983-1985, and has had articles published in Piano Quarterly, Piano and Keyboard, Keyboard Companion, and Piano Life magazines.

In 2004 Wachter was invited to be one of three national MTNA judges for the Baldwin and Yamaha piano competitions. In 2005 she received the “Working Partnership” Award from the International Institute for Young Musicians.