Send us a Text Message.

Thank you for joining us on today's episode on Inside the Taubman Approach. I'm your host, Dr. Benjamin Harding.

Today we welcome Father Sean Duggan to the podcast. Pianist Sean Duggan is a monk of St. Joseph Abbey in Covington, Louisiana. He is also a professor of piano at SUNY Fredonia. Father Sean is a master pianist and a master teacher.  His teaching and playing was and is enhanced in studying with Edna Golandsky.

His work in the playing of Bach and memorization is renowned. We cover so much in this episode. Also - bonus! A video of this interview is available on our YouTube channel. Check out the show notes of the podcast for the link and for more information on Father Sean Duggan.

YouTube Interview Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw5lYnjvjMQ
Father Sean Duggan at SUNY Fredonia:
https://www.fredonia.edu/academics/colleges-schools/school-music/music/faculty/Sean-Duggan

Pianist Sean Duggan is a monk of St. Joseph Abbey in Covington, Louisiana. He obtained his music degrees from Loyola University in New Orleans and Carnegie Mellon University. He received a Master’s degree in theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. From 1988 to 2001 he taught music, Latin, and religion at St. Joseph Seminary College in Louisiana and was director of music and organist at St. Joseph Abbey.

In September 1983 he won first prize in the Johann Sebastian Bach International Competition for Pianists in Washington, D.C., and again in August 1991. Having a special affinity for the music of Bach, in 2000 he performed the complete cycle of Bach’s keyboard works eight times in various American and European cities. For seven years he hosted a weekly program on the New Orleans NPR station entitled “Bach on Sunday.” He is presently in the midst of recording the complete cycle of Bach’s keyboard (piano) music, which will comprise 24 CDs.

Before he joined the Benedictine order he was pianist and assistant chorus master for the Pittsburgh Opera Company for three years. He has performed with many orchestras including the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Leipzig Baroque Soloists, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the American Chamber Orchestra, and the Pennsylvania Sinfonia. From 2001 to 2004 he was a visiting professor of piano at the University of Michigan. Currently he is associate professor of piano at SUNY at Fredonia. During the fall semester of 2008 he was also a guest professor of piano at Eastman School of Music. He has been a guest artist and adjudicator at the Chautauqua Institution for several summers, and is also a faculty member of the Golandsky Institute at Princeton, New Jersey. He continues to study the Taubman approach with Edna Golandsky in New York City.

The Golandsky Institute's mission is to provide cutting-edge instruction to pianists based on the groundbreaking work of Dorothy Taubman. This knowledge can help them overcome technical and musical challenges, cure and prevent playing-related injuries, and lead them to achieve their highest level of artistic excellence.
Please visit our website at: www.golandskyinstitute.org.