Keren Ligowski

M. M. in Piano Pedagogy

Licensed Kindermusik Educator

Keren Ligowski started Suzuki piano lessons at the age of three with her mother, Gloriana Sewell. Keren was an active participant in studio piano recitals, National Guild Auditions, Achievement Awards Auditions of the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association, Suzuki Institutes at Ithaca, New York and Kingston, Ontario, and competitive auditions of the PMTA and Music Teachers National Association. She had her first National Guild Audition at the age of four and performed her first program of ten pieces at the age of five. In 1987 she earned the Paderewski medal for completing ten years of ten piece programs. In 1983 she started participating in the Achievement Awards Auditions of the LVPMTA and won a second place trophy in the Honors Recital. In 1987 she earned the Superior Plus plaque for receiving five consecutive years of Superior Plus ratings. In 1984 she started participating in the Baldwin Junior High Keyboard Competition of the MTNA, and in 1985 she won first place in the state. In 1987 she qualified in the district Yamaha High School Piano Competition and represented her local chapter at the state convention. In 1987 she also won the Voorhees Concerto Competition and performed the Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Allentown Symphony. In 1988 she won the state high school level of the MTNA Columbia Pictures Student Composition Competition.

Keren was active in the music activities of her junior high and high school. She sang and accompanied for the Moravian Academy middle school choir and for the Quakertown high school choir. She accompanied solo voice, flute and cello students. She was a member of the middle school Handbell Choir, and in high school was a choir section leader, participated in the school musical, was a member of the select group Varsity Singers and qualified to sing in the PMEA District Chorus.

Keren received coaching from Valery Lloyd-Watts, well-known Suzuki educator, lecturer and concert pianist, from Katherine Sharp, former teacher at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, and from Marvin Blickenstaff, co-author of the Music Pathways series, educator, performer and lecturer. She studied piano with Harvey Wedeen, chairman of the keyboard department at Temple University, from 1989-96. She also studied jazz piano with Tom Lauten, educator and performer, and voice from 1994-1995 with Mary Ann Steiber at Temple University, and with Cora Gamelin, educator, lecturer and performer, in 1998.

In 1990 Keren won the Choral Accompanist Award at her high school, the Bart Pitman Memorial Scholarship in piano, the Lehigh Valley Chapter of PMTA Scholarship Award and a partial four-year talent scholarship from Temple University. In requirement for the Lehigh Valley Award, she composed an original keyboard composition for the Kurzweil keyboard and Macintosh computer.

Keren started teaching Suzuki piano in 1985. In addition to private lessons, she assisted with group lessons, and tutored in sightreading, piano technique, jazz and improvisation, ear training, solfege, theory, composition, practice skills and harmonization. She helped plan and implement computer and synthesizer workshops in the studio, and in 1992, she assisted her mother in two courses, "Dalcroze Eurhythmics" and "Choirchimes" at a Suzuki Piano Institute. In 1992, she became the director of her church choir and directs a three-day choir retreat for the members each summer. In 1997, she accepted the position of Assistant Convention Chairperson for the PMTA and helped run the 1998 State Convention at West Chester University. In the spring of 1997, she and her mother designed and ran a Music Festival for the LVPMTA for piano and strings.

Keren is a member of the Music Teachers National Association, the Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association, the Lehigh Valley Chapter of PMTA, the National Guild of Piano Teachers, the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and the Greater Philadelphia Suzuki Association.

Keren completed Kindermusik Village, Kindermusik Beginnings (currently Kindermusik Our Time), Growing With Kindermusik (currently Kindermusik Imagine That!) and Kindermusik for the Young Child at the Westminster Choir College Seminars, and took courses in Suzuki teacher training in Kingston, Ontario under Carole Bigler and Valery Lloyd-Watts and in Philadelphia at Eastern College with Haruko Kataoka. She also has taken a full semester of Dalcroze Eurhythmics with Joy Yellin and another semester with Robert Abramson, one of the leading Dalcroze authorities in the world. Keren has taken three semesters of choral conducting, as well as courses in Rehearsal Techniques for the Amateur Church Choir, Use of Dalcroze Eurhythmics in the Choir Rehearsal and Ear Training for the Amateur Church Choir.

At college, Keren was an accompanist for lessons, juries, rehearsals and recitals for choir, voice, instrumental and piano students, and a pianist in a clarinet, piano and voice trio and a piano quartet with violin, viola and cello. She sang in all three of Temple's choirs and in Recital Choruses directed by graduate choral conducting students. In 1994 Keren performed her Senior Recital in Temple¹s Rock Hall, and in 1996 she performed her Masters Recital, which included solo piano works and chamber music. In 1992 she was inducted into the Golden Key National Honor Society, and in 1993 was one of only three in her college to be inducted as a junior into the Eta Eta Chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda, a National Music Honor Society. In 1993-1994 she received the Presser Scholar Award presented to "an outstanding student who has earned high scholarship honors", was included in Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges three times, and was honored as a President's Scholar. At commencement in 1994, Keren received the Temple University Music Alumni Award "for a graduating senior of unusual musical talent who has achieved a high scholastic average during the four years of baccalaureate study" and the Nancy Campbell Music Award for the Esther Boyer College of Music student with the highest average in music theory. She graduated first in her class with a Bachelor of Music, Summa Cum Laude, performance degree in piano pedagogy.

As a graduate student, Keren received a partial tuition remission at Temple for her first year and an assistantship to teach Aural Theory, and a full tuition remission and assistantship for her second year. In addition to teaching Aural Theory labs, Keren taught and tutored for Conducting labs and classes, was an assistant conductor for Temple's University Chorale and assisted with Secondary Piano classes. Keren graduated in May of 1996 with a 4.0 GPA and a Master of Music, Summa Cum Laude, performance degree in piano pedagogy. In 1996, after graduating from Temple, Keren joined her mother as a full-time teacher and partner at the Milford Square Music Studio. She teaches Suzuki piano to beginning, intermediate and advanced students and classes in Kindermusik Village, Our Time, Imagine That! and Family Time for children ages newborn to 7 years.

Keren was Spring Bus Trip Chairperson for the LVPMTA from 1996-2005. She planned trips for the students to Lincoln Center in New York City or to the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.

In March of 2008, Keren completed her teacher training at Yoga Child, in Philadelphia, to teach yoga to children and families.  She was a substitute teacher for a Family Yoga class at Yoga Child.  She offered Family Yoga classes here at Milford Square Music Studio in the summer of 2008.

Keren lives in Trumbauersville with her husband, Paul, and three sons, Elijah, Gabriel and Asa.