Carolyn True

Carolyn True is a pianist equally at home on the concert stage and in the teaching studio. She walks the delicate balance between teaching in San Antonio, giving workshops, master classes, seminars, and adjudicating and actively performing as soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Europe, India, and Taiwan.

A member of the music faculty of Trinity University, True teaches individual lessons, accompanying, piano ensemble, piano literature, piano pedagogy, and other related courses. In 2000, True was recognized as the Texas Music Teachers Association’s Collegiate Teacher of the Year and in 2010 was awarded the highest honor to a faculty member at Trinity University – the Dr. and Mrs. Z.T. Scott Faculty Fellowship award.

In addition to her solo and duo work, she is a core member of the SOLI Chamber Ensemble, the resident chamber ensemble of Trinity University. In 2013 they received the ASCAP/CMA Award for Adventurous Programming. SOLI has commissioned numerous works, most notably from composers Mackey, Moravec, and Rorem. In the fall of 2014 they released two new CDs (Portraits and Musica, por un tiempo) and were featured on the title track of a third Overland Dream: The Music of Peter Lieuwen, vol. 1.

SOLI’s work with Lieuwen reached a climax in March 2016, when they premiered the first ever QUAD Concerto with the University of Houston Symphony Orchestra. The CD, Carolyn True 1, features works of Ligeti, Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, and Bennett. She has edited two volumes of piano works by Starer (Sketches in Color) and Milhaud (A Child’s Loves). A Duo Piano CD – Bradley Beckman & Carolyn True 2 –contains the works of Barber, Bernstein, and Piazzolla. Beckman and True compiled and edited a graded volume of piano duets – Duet Discoveries. The Beckman/True duo adjudicated and performed in MusiQuest – a weeklong piano festival in Pune, India.

Dr. True holds the prestigious Performer’s Certificate and the D.M.A. degree from the Eastman School of Music, an M.M. from the University of Maryland-College Park, and the B.M. from the University of Central Missouri. She was a prize-winner in national and international competitions. She was also the recipient of a Rotary Foundation Scholarship for study at the Conservatoire National de la Musique in Lyon, France. Her teachers have included three Trues of distinction: Marilyn True, pre-college; Wesley True, undergraduate; and Nelita True, graduate studies.

https://inside.trinity.edu/directory/ctrue