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Maria LeRose Herndon - Piano and Organ

Maria completed her Master of Music in Sacred Music with an emphasis in organ as well as a Certificate in Music Theory Pedagogy at the University of Kentucky in 2006. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from UK with a Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance in 2004. She is currently an organ student of Dr. Schuyler Robinson at UK. Maria’s previous teachers include Wayne Halstead of Summersville, WV; Julie Janisch of Charleston, WV; Dr. Shelly Moorman-Stahlman at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, PA, and Dr. John Turnbull at Converse College in Spartanburg, SC. In summer 2004, Maria studied organ in Salzburg, Austria with Bernhard Gfrerer. She has been the organist at several churches in WV and SC, and organist and handbell director at Trinity Hill United Methodist Church in Lexington for four years. She has taught piano and organ lessons at the Music Institute of Lexington since January 2004, and received her training in the Suzuki Method during June 2005.

While at Converse College Maria was honored as a Daniel Music Scholar and received a Music Honors Scholarship. She was a member of the Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society and the Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity at Converse College. In 2003 she was awarded an accompanying grant from the UK School of Music. During her undergraduate studies at UK she was selected to represent the keyboard division at the Honors Convocation Recital twice and was inducted into the Phi Sigma Theta National Honor Society and the Golden Key International Honour Society. She was a 2005 & 2007 scholarship winner from the Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts. Maria is currently working toward a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Organ Performance at UK.