Jeffrey L. Shumway

From College of Fine Arts and Communications

Jeffrey L. Shumway, pianist, is a member of the music faculty at Brigham Young University, serving as Professor of Piano and as Head of Keyboard Studies. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1976 from Brigham Young University, gaining Most Outstanding Pianist and Most Outstanding Musician honors. Further studies included the Master of Music degree at Juilliard School of Music, where he studied with Irwin Freundlich. He received the Doctor of Music degree with High Honors from Indiana University in 1981. In 1977 Shumway was the second prize winner of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition.

Since joining the piano faculty at Brigham Young University in 1985 Shumway has performed extensively solo and chamber music. In 1990, he completed a series of ten recitals featuring the complete thirty-two sonatas of Beethoven, for which he received high acclaim and was honored with the inaugural Gina Bachauer Medal of Artistic Distinction. He has also twice received the Creative Excellence Award from the College of Fine Arts and Communications at Brigham Young University.

Concerto performances include works by Mendelssohn, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Brahms, Gershwin, Cramer, and Ravel, the latter as part of another series in 1987 devoted to the complete solo and ensemble piano music of Ravel.

Shumway is a member of the internationally renowned American Piano Quartet with whom he has performed and recorded throughout Europe, Canada, the Far East, and the United States. In addition to involvement with the American Piano Quartet, Shumway has performed regularly since 1983 with his duo-piano partner, Del Parkinson of Boise State University, with whom he recorded a compact disc, Celebrating Gershwin, in 1998. Shumway has also arranged several pieces for five pianos, published by Piano Ensemble International.

Through his career, Shumway has worked with, mentored, and influenced countless students. In the Winter 2008 edition of BYU Magazine, one of his former students, Lindy Johnson Taylor shared her remembrances of studying under Shumway.

In 2008, Shumway was invited to perform as part of the International Double Reed Society Annual Conference.