CAPMT 2024 Conference Award Recipients

CAPMT Lifetime Achievement Award 2024:

Brian Chung

Brian Chung’s diverse career includes experience as a performer, composer, arranger, teacher, author, conference speaker and music industry executive. In the business world, he served over 31 years as senior vice president of Kawai America Corporation. As a musician, he is co-author of Improvisation at the Piano (with Dennis Thurmond), co-author of Recreational Music Making Handbook (with Brenda Dillon), author of Expressions of Faith: Eight Inventive Explorations of Classic Hymns and Expressions of Christmas (all published by Alfred Music) and recipient of a 2022 Composer’s Grant from the MTNA Collaborative Music Commissioning Project. As an active member of Music Teachers National Association, he served as chair of the MTNA Foundation Fund Development Committee for 20 years (1999-2019), chair of the 2022 National Conference Planning Committee – and is honored to be a 2004 MTNA Foundation Fellow, 2015 MTNA Endowment Fellow, and recipient of the 2010 MTNA Distinguished Service Award and 2019 MTNA Citation for Leadership.

Mr. Chung has an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Michigan, where he combined his musical and business interests. In addition to performing in the Michigan Marching Band (on alto horn) and the school's top jazz band (on piano), he spent summers as a pianist and musical director at Walt Disney World. After college, he traveled to London to study piano, conducting and improvisation at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as a Rotary Foundation Scholar. Upon his return to the States, he was privileged to pursue jazz studies as the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. After years as a professional musician and independent piano teacher, he continued his business education by completing a Master of Management Degree at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. His business pursuits eventually led him to Kawai America Corporation, where he served in senior management from 1988 until his retirement in 2020. As an active retiree, he enjoys composing music, serving in church leadership, playing pickleball, and spending precious time with his wife of 45 years (Jo Anne), his three grown sons and seven energetic grandchildren.

CAPMT Teacher of the Year 2024-2025:

Dr. Stewart Gordon

Dr. Stewart Gordon is Emeritus Professor of Keyboard Studies at the Thornton School of Music of the University of Southern California. His academic career included posts at the University of Maryland, where he served as Dean of the Music School, and Queens College of the City University of New York, where he served as Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs. As a performing pianist, he toured the United States, Europe, the Middle-East, and Asia. His recordings include works by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, and the complete Rachmaninoff Preludes.   

He is the author of Etudes for Piano Teachers; A History of Keyboard Literature; Mastering the Art of Performance; Planning Your Piano Success; and Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas. As an editor he completed critical editions of the Beethoven piano sonatas; the Mozart piano sonatas, and the Debussy etudes. He holds degrees from the University of Kansas and The University of Rochester (Eastman School of Music). He has been the recipient of the California Association of Professional Music Teachers Lifetime Achievement Award and the Maryland State Music Teachers Award for Distinguished Service to Music. He has been elected to several honorary organizations: Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Kappa Lambda (music), and Scabbard and Blade (military). As a young man he served four years as a junior officer in the United States Navy. 

CAPMT MTNA Foundation Fellow 2024-2025:

Craig Richey

A graduate of the Juilliard School, and Hailed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for his "No-nonsense pianism!" Craig Richey made his New York debut as guest duo-soloist with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. He is currently a member of the Piano Faculty at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University Long Beach. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Craig taught at the esteemed Third Street Music School Settlement in New York City where he also directed their Chamber Music Program. He has appeared in collaborative, chamber music and solo performances throughout the United States and has performed live on National Public Radio and Air America Radio. 

Mr. Richey’s students have been regular winners of the Bob Cole Conservatory Concerto Competition, have frequently garnered first and second prizes in solo and concerto competitions in California as well as top prizes in international competitions. He is a frequent adjudicator at competitions throughout the Southwest. He is also a regular guest master teacher in Tokyo, Japan for the Piano Teachers Music Guild. 

Mr. Richey also has a thriving career as a composer for film and television. Lauded by Film Music Magazine for his ‘effortlessly gliding melodies’, Craig is a Sundance Fellow, an alum of the Composers Lab, and has returned as an Advisor in the Sundance Film Music and Sound Design Lab at Skywalker Sound. He has appeared on BMI Composers Roundtable Panels at the Sundance Film Festival and SXSW. Recent television credits include 2 seasons of ‘Dear…’ on Apple TV+. His feature films have screened in prestigious festivals including Sundance, Toronto, Edmonton, SXSW, Tribeca, Berlin and Sedona Film Festivals.

Craig is the CAMPT Commissioned Composer Chair and the MTNA Student Composition Competitions Coordinator.