Dr. Heather Conner

Originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Steinway Artist Dr. Heather Conner is Chancellor’s Chair of Pre-College Piano and Professor of Piano at the Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music. Prior to this appointment, she was Professor of Piano at The University of Utah School of Music where she served on the faculty for fourteen years. As a recitalist, she has performed in many prestigious venues in New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Moscow, Salzburg, Antweiler, Germany, Seoul, Niagara-on-the-Lake (Canada), New Haven, Greenville (SC and NC), Stillwater and Oklahoma City, (OK), Tuscaloosa, (AL), Montgomery (AL), Murfreesboro (TN) and Salt Lake City.

Conner has won Grand Prizes at several international and national competitions including the First Hilton Head Island International Piano Competition and the Kingsville International Young Performers Competition, and has performed on numerous occasions as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has also appeared as soloist with the Lancaster (PA), Lansdowne (PA), Corpus Christi (TX), Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra, Haddonfield Symphony (NJ), Altoona Symphony (PA), Hilton Head Island Symphony Orchestra (SC), Midland-Odessa Symphony (TX), Warminster Symphony (PA), Yale Philharmonia (CT), Norwalk Symphony (CT), New American Symphony (UT) and the Salt Lake Symphony (UT). Heather has recorded commercially for the Naxos, Centaur and Acis Productions labels and has been heard on NPR’s Performance Today, WQED in Pittsburgh, WFLN in Philadelphia, and KCSC in Oklahoma City. Her performances can also be heard on the web at instantencore.com. An avid chamber musician, Heather has appeared in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall and at the Glenn Gould Studios in Toronto. She holds degrees from The Curtis Institute of Music, Yale School of Music, and Manhattan School of Music. She enjoys collaborating with her husband, Caleb Harris and their children, Logan and Emery Harris on the stage.