Giuseppe Lupis, Pianist                                                    office (616) 331-2571
fax (616) 331-3100
Grand Valley State University
1228 Performing Arts Center
Allendale, MI 49401

News

Stay Tuned. February 5, 2010: High School Piano Days!!! How to prepare for a college audition. The event will be held at Grand Valley State University. To sign up and for any other information please download the brochure, call 616-331-2571, or email Dr. Lupis at lupisg@gvsu.edu.

The second edition of the Grumo Festival 2010 will soon take place in Grumo Appula, Italy during summer 2010. Enjoy a week of music and the Italian experience. Sign up for concerts, lessons, and lectures with a panel of international artists. www.grumofestival.com

The Liszt Festival of the bicentennial. Giuseppe Lupis has been invited to perform two of William Bolcom Etudes before the composer: February 2011.

GVSU Prospective Students

  • Piano Audition Dates
    Saturday, January 16, 2010
    Saturday, February 13, 2010
    Friday, February 19, 2010 (high school honors band participants only) 
    Saturday, March 27, 2010
    Saturday, April 17, 2010
  • Piano Audition Repertoire
    • All major and harmonic minor scales and arpeggios (four octaves).
    • One Baroque work to be chosen from:  A Baroque suite (two contrasting movements); a three-part invention; or a Prelude and Fugue from the Well Tempered Clavier Book I or II (Bach); or a comparable work by another Baroque composer (such as a Scarlatti Sonata).
    • One movement of a Classical sonata by Haydn, Clementi, Hummel, Mozart, or Beethoven (excluding Op. 49 Beethoven).
    • One piece from the Romantic, Impressionistic, or Twentieth Century (for example: Chopin Nocturnes; Brahms Rhapsodies, Op. 79; Debussy Preludes, Ginastera Danzas Argentinas, Copland 4 Piano Blues).
    • Memory is expected.
    • Sight-reading.

 

    Dear Prospective Student,

    Thank you for your inquiry.

    My name is Giuseppe Lupis, Assistant Professor / Artist Performer of Piano at Grand Valley State University. I am delighted to hear that you are considering Grand Valley among your options to further your piano studies. You could not choose better! This year GVSU was named a "Best in the Midwest" college by The Princeton Review and best college buy for the 14th year.

    Here you will find the perfect environment for your studies, wonderful fellow students and dedicated faculty, and a variety of scholarships.

    Should you find yourself in Allendale or Grand Rapids, I would like to invite you to attend one or more of our future events.

    Otherwise, please, let me hear from you at any time by phone at (616) 331-2571 or by email at lupisg@gvsu.edu. I will be happy to answer all questions you may have.

    Thank you again for your interest in the piano program at Grand Valley State University, and I look forward to hearing from you and to meeting with you soon!

    Cordially,

    Giuseppe Lupis

  • Teaching Experience and students' achievements

    As a teacher with sixteen years of service in various institutions in the US and abroad, I enjoy working with all students and following them throughout their career paths. Some of them have completed their studies and have moved onto a professional career in music and in the arts. For example, Roberto Napolitano (Campobasso Conservatory of Music, 1996) recently performed in London; Corey Mast (Missouri Southern State University, B.Mus 2009) enjoys piano teaching and maintains a private studio in Oklahoma; Vincenzo Fazio (private student, 1990's) runs his theatre production company in Italy; Eric Stetson (Georgia Southern State University, 2006) is a professional composer; and Germano Gastal Mayer (Vale Veneto Festival, Brazil) is Assistant Professor at the Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil. Ilaria Polinesi (private student, 1990's) is graduating on March 18, 2010, in Italy.

    Graduating piano students from my studios have successfully auditioned and have been accepted into graduate programs such as Baylor University, Illinois State University, The University of Georgia, University of Kansas, University of Arkansas, University of Missouri Kansas City, and Valdosta State University. Also, they have received assistantship offers from some of these schools, as they continue in their academic endeavor. Kristin Humbard (B.Mus. 2008) and Anna Buckley (B.Mus. 2009) are now pursuing graduate studies, piano pedagogy emphasis, at the University of Georgia, both with a full assistantship; and Jason Terry (B.Mus. 2009) after being awarded one of the two 2009 MSSU campus-wide Bartlett Awards is pursuing a Master in Church Music at Baylor University with a full assistantship as well.

    In February 2009, Anna Buckley toured with the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra in Valdosta and Atlanta, Georgia, performing a keyboard part in Honegger's King David oratorio. Anna, together with Cassie Armstrong, another of my students at Missouri Southern, also attended the 2009 Grumo Festival in Italy performing on the main square of Grumo Appula on July 16, and they are currently running the Intermezzo Piano Academy summer program in Joplin, Missouri.

  • Teaching Philosophy

    Working with students is a joyful process, because it develops in a positive, electrifying, and responsive atmosphere. The spread of musical knowledge in the classroom and applied lesson settings nurtures social skills, expands horizons, fosters self-consciousness, enhances commitment, improves concentration, requires application, establishes goals, and returns achievements. Although clear guidelines are basic in establishing a coherent way the learning process will be conducted, as a teacher I strive to help each and every single pupil to advance, beyond the simple evaluation of the work. For this reason I try to create the best possible positive environment for the thriving of music, in which every individual feels part of a group whose ultimate goal is to learn to appreciate the beauty of the arts. At the end of a course I enjoy seeing that my students not only have learned basic musical facts but also have had their intellectual curiosity kindled.

    Each piano lesson is different, thus requiring a specific approach. Piano playing requires organization, and it is based on some basic rules, which I enjoy to explore together with my students in a continuously encouraging environment. After the student has performed his/her piece, and assuming that notes, accidentals, and rhythm are played correctly, I focus on fingering and use of the pedal. My goal is to create solid foundations for a correct philological interpretation. Often, I play passages, because listening and observation strengthen verbally explained concepts. The best quality of a pianist is his/her sound, as much as voice is to a singer. In turn, piano mastery involves attentive listening no less than playing. Technical approach is therefore very personal, and should only start from the attempt of producing a specific shade of sound, as envisioned. Only then, and after enough time spent working together with the student, I explain and demonstrate the dynamics involved in technical approach - among them, the rational use of the space on the keyboard, and the applied laws of physics related to weight, mass, velocity, force, and power - which choice would work best, and give specific reasons, leaving the student as much time as needed to acquire and master the new concept. Search for sound fuels interest and curiosity, and opens new horizons. As such, a great pianist is one who can shape as closely as possible the sound he/she has in mind, in the way he/she has pictured. Although each composer is associated with specific characteristics and timbre qualities, my target is to give pupils firm and coherent tools they can apply in their personal and individual approach to new compositions, rather than shaping them as copies of my way of performing at the piano. Within this artistic freedom, legacy is established on the basis of a common set of rules and ideas.