KESSA MEFFORD - Piano (Mohegan Lake and Croton Locations)

Kessa Mefford is an award-winning pianist who has been performing piano in public since the age of six. A native of Peekskill, New York, Kessa is an active artist with the Piatigorsky Foundation, performing for them on fully funded tours all around the USA. She has performed piano concertos with the Taconic Opera Chamber Orchestra in Westchester, and she has also started her own concert series “Whimsical Birdsong,” based out of New York in which she performs and collaborates with others in presenting the complete works of the composer Maurice Ravel that include piano.
At the end of 2019, Kessa released her debut CD with Whole Note Publishing featuring live performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and other solo piano works. Since the pandemic started she has been active in maintaining an online presence through live stream concerts and practice sessions from her home through the “Piano at Noon” quarantine project. She is also an active opera pianist with Taconic Opera and the New York Opera Conservatory. Kessa received an MM in piano performance from the Mannes School of Music in May 2020, studying Simone Dinnerstein. Kessa received a BM in piano performance in August 2017 at Brigham Young University, where she studied under Dr. Richard Anderson and Dr. Irene Peery-Fox.
Kessa has been teaching piano privately for over ten years and received professional pedagogy training through BYU and the UMTA. She primarily teaches classical piano and believes in strong foundations in technique and music theory. Her preferred piano methods are Faber Piano Adventures for children and John Thompson’s Modern Piano Course or Faber Adult Piano Adventures for adults. Kessa specializes in teaching older children and adults of any skill level who are dedicated to making piano an important part of their lives.