Catharine Lysinger, DMA, is Professor of Practice at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas, where she teaches applied piano and piano pedagogy since 2004.  

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Lysinger is a prizewinner in national and international piano competitions, including First Prize in the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) National Young Artist Competition and First Prize in the Wideman International Piano Competition. Lysinger is a frequent guest of festivals nationally and internationally receiving invitations to teach and perform in Europe, China, and the Dominican Republic. She has been artist-faculty at the Brancaleoni International Music Festival (Italy), May Festival in Tianjin, China, and Vienna International Piano Festival. Lysinger continues to be an active soloist and collaborator regularly presenting concerti with the Meadows Symphony Orchestra, Meadows Wind Ensemble, and giving solo and two-piano concerts.

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Lysinger is a frequent adjudicator and has served on the screening jury for the Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition, and juries for the Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition, MTNA Divisional Competitions, and the Chopin Northwest. She is the founding director of the SMU Institute for Young Pianists (SMU IYP). Her university and pre-college students have been awarded first prize in numerous competitions, including the MTNA-Texas Junior, Senior and Young Artist Piano Competitions, the Plano Symphony Young Artist Competition and the Lewisville Lake Competition. She was named Pre-Collegiate Teacher of the Year by her colleagues in Texas MTA in 2014 and now serves on its Executive Board. She has presented lectures on practice techniques and strategies at conferences at state and national conferences throughout the US.

 

She earned the B.M at Southwestern University, and M.M. and D.M.A. in Piano Performance at the University of Houston with Nancy Weems, additional studies with Horacio Gutiérrez, Gabriel Chodos (Aspen Music Festival) and Evelyne Brancart (Aspen Music Festival).