Dr. Lian Tan Honored With American Music Teacher Article of the Year (March 29, 2023)

“Listening With Your Brain: An Aural-Cognitive Approach to Teaching Musical Understanding and Artistry,” coauthored by Chan Kiat Lim, NCTM of Lafayette, Louisiana and Siok Lian Tan, NCTM of Oxford, Ohio, has been selected as the American Music Teacher Article of the Year. This award is presented by Music Teachers National Association to the author(s) of an outstanding feature article written expressly for American Music Teacher. The article was published in the October/November 2022 issue. Lim and Tan received a $1,000 award, made possible by the MTNA Foundation Fund.

Chan Kiat Lim has performed solo and chamber recitals in Canada, China, Germany, Greece, Italy, Jamaica, Malaysia, Romania and throughout the United States including solo performances at Music at Penn Alps Concert Series in Maryland and twice at Steinway Hall, New York City.

A pedagogue and clinician, he is an active presenter at international and national music conferences on performance and pedagogical topics. Chan Kiat co-authored with Susanna Garcia, an online multimedia curriculum eNovativePiano, which was the recipient of the 2021 MTNA-Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award.

Chan Kiat is an Endowed Professor of Piano at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where teaches piano performance, keyboard literature, class piano, and the heads the Keyboard Studies Area. In 2015, he received the UL-Lafayette Distinguished Professor Award and the Louisiana Music Teachers Association (LMTA) Outstanding Teacher Award. In 2020, he was honored as a MTNA FOUNDATION Fellow. Chan Kiat is MTNA’s webinar coordinator and Louisiana MTA president.

Siok Lian Tan is associate professor of piano and coordinator of the piano area at Miami University. She holds a DMA degree in piano from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She has appeared as a soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Oxford Chamber Orchestra and Miami University Symphony Orchestra. Lian has presented solo and chamber music concerts throughout the world, including a solo recital at the St. Martin-in-the-Fields concert series.

Lian has presented at national and regional CMS Conferences, state and national MTNA conferences, the National Group Piano/Piano Pedagogy Forum and the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy. She has also written articles for the Piano Pedagogy Forum, American Music Teacher and Clavier Companion. Named the 2011 OhioMTA Teacher of the Year, Lian was also the recipient of the 2020 Miami University Crossan Hays Curry Distinguish Educator Award. She has served as the vice president of student activities on the OhioMTA executive committee.

MTNA is a nonprofit organization of independent and collegiate music teachers committed to furthering the art of music through teaching, performance, composition and scholarly research. Founded in 1876, MTNA is the oldest professional music teachers association in the United States.

For additional information, please contact MTNA national headquarters at (888) 512-5278, mtnanet@mtna.org or visit the website at www.mtna.org.