About Marceline
After her first heart surgery at the age of nine, Marceline Merrill found companionship and solace at the piano. Through her authentic approach, her poised yet emotionally dynamic playing weaves colorful stories that can only be told by music. Now, she is an award-winning and internationally-recognized soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue. She is known for her “heart-felt rendering, nuanced playing, and surging exuberance” (Dedham Times).
As a testament to her beloved craft, Mrs. Merrill has well over 40 awards and distinctions from her hometown in Idaho to national and international acclaim. Of note, she is a five-time laureate of the Buono and Bradshaw International Piano Competition, winner of the ISCS Young Artist Competition, winner of the Musicians West Piano Competition, and holds top prizes in MTNA state competitions in piano and composition, as well as numerous scholarships and grant awards. She also holds distinctions and prizes from the Chicago International Music Competition, the International Keyboard Odysiad, the Clara Schumann International Music Competition, the Medici International
Music Competition, the Carles and Sofia International Piano Competition among many others and has been recognized multiple times by the New England Piano Teachers Association’s four-under-forty grant.
Since her debut concert performing with the Idaho State Civic Symphony as a child, she regularly curates and contributes to concerts that feature under-represented and living composers alongside the great masterworks of the classical canon. She has become known not only for her teaching artistry from the stage, but her powerful and meaning-filled programming that engages real-world issues and invites audiences into a deeper understanding of music. She has appeared in the New Gallery Concert Series, MTNA’s 150th Anniversary Conference (Chicago), the Wasserman Festival (Utah), the Keyboard
Odysiad Festival (Colorado), the Chicago International Music Festival, and stages like the Methuen Music Hall, Longy’s Pickman Hall, Boston Lyric Opera, and Wang Theatre to name a few.
Enjoying a robust and diverse career, Marceline is a sought-after collaborator. She has recently performed with Radius Ensemble, Area 9 quartet, Duo Filipino, Analog by Choice, Jordan Bowman, Beth Welty and Seychelle Dunn-Corbin. She also collaborates with poets and painters to create immersive and multi-sensory concert experiences, and deeply enjoys working with living composers. She has performed numerous state and world premiers of works like Junda Tao’s piano trio “Whispers”, Robert Rogler’s Songs for Bass, and five song cycles, an opera, and a triptych for piano and electronics by Bruno Faria.
Marcy has been an active pedagogue for over 15 years. She enjoys teaching beginners and amateurs, all the way up to professional and DMA candidates. She has presented at MTNA’s National Conference and was a contributor to the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy’s course, Piano Pedagogy Through the Lens of DEI. She currently teaches a small audition-only studio from her home, is on faculty at the South Shore Piano School, and occasionally teaches for Aljoša Jurinić (MIT). Her teaching focuses on marrying traditional pedagogy and artistic coaching with practical strategies based
on neuroscience, psychology, and the bio-mechanics of playing.
Although Marceline believes her students’ achievements are their own, she enjoys coaching them through RCM And ABRSM exams, competitions, festivals, and frequent performances. Of note, her students have gone on to attended schools like Boston University, Northeastern, MIT, Julliard, and have even gone to France on a Fulbright Scholarship.
Mrs. Merrill believes that music and music education should be available to all. She is the founder and director of Next Golden Era, a small recital series dedicated to raising and distributing funds for equity-based music lesson scholarships. She also volunteers and collaborates with the New England Piano Teachers Association, the Dedham School of Music, the Massachusetts Music Teacher Association, the Volunteer Musicians Association as well as the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy to contribute to a more diverse and equitable future for the next generation of pianists and music educators.
Marceline holds degrees from Idaho State University and Longy School of Music of Bard College with many distinctions. In her master’s program, she was a proud scholar of Janet and Irv Plotkin, a teaching assistant, a graduate fellow, and an assistant editor to The Ensemble and The World Ensemble. Her primary mentors include Brandon Bascom, Kori Bond, Wayman Chin, and Spencer Myer. She has continued her pedagogical studies with Roza Yoder at the Chopin Academy and has also studied with luminaries like Steven Spooner, HeiYon Choi, Jefrey Biegal, Boris Slutsky, Arthur Green, Andrius Zlabys, Edward Auer, Kevin Kenner, and Mikhail Voskressensky.