Nancy Elton

Nancy Elton received the Master’s and Doctorate degrees in performance in both piano and voice from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied piano with John Perry. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina where she was awarded the school’s highest honor, the Music Achievement Award. There she studied with John Kenneth Adams. Other study was with Frank Mannheimer, Jerome Lowenthal and accompanying with Gwendolyn Koldovsky. Dr. Elton was a national finalist in the MTNA Collegiate Artist Piano Competition in 1972, receiving the 2nd place award. She has won critical acclaim for her concerto and solo recitals, and has performed throughout the Southeast and other areas of the U.S., and given solo and lecture recitals for the American Matthay Association. Recent concerto appearances were in St. Simon's Georgia with the Coastal Symphony of Georgia, playing Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto and a return performance of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. She also performed Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with the Musica Sacra Orchestra and Oratorio Choir at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta.

Dr. Elton has continued to sing professionally in both opera and recital. She sang the Austin premier of several works of Texas composers and was selected to sing in master classes with Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Walter Legge in a Lieder Workshop held in Thunder Bay, Canada. She has sung the lead roles in Lehar's The Merry Widow and Bizet's Dr. Miracle and performed with the Atlanta Opera Studio, taking opera to the city schools. Her repertoire in both piano and voice contains 20th century repertoire of varying styles, including works of Babbitt, Kathryn Mischel, Priscilla McLean, Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, Prokofief, Bartok, and Carter. A recording by Capstone Records released in 1999 features her as soprano soloist in the song cycle “Fantasies for Adults and Other Children” by Priscilla McLean.

Dr. Elton taught at Georgia State University and Clayton State College and currently teaches at the Atlanta Music Academy. She has taught piano students of all ages and levels for more than thirty years, and her students consistently win the highest ratings in local and state competitions. Her students have also consistently been selected for the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program in piano, and many have gone on to major in music. On the national level, she had a winner in the Clara Wells Piano Competition sponsored by the American Matthay Association.

Dr. Elton is active as an adjudicator and clinician for festivals and organizations in the Southeast. She is currently Executive-Secretary for the Atlanta Music Club and Immediate Past-President of Atlanta Music Teachers Association. She was recently a presenter at the World Piano Pedagogy Conference in Las Vegas. Upcoming projects include a recording of Elliott Carter's Piano Sonata on a CD featuring 20th Century American Masterworks and solo recitals and master classes in South Korea and Oregon.