Jeanette Zyko, oboe, with Lori Piitz, piano

Jeanette Zyko, oboe and Lori Piitz, piano, professors in the JMU School of Music, invite you to join them on a trip around the world with music for oboe and piano. The program will feature several pieces by women composers and encompass a wide range of musical styles, including an Italian tarantella, a Russian lyrical poem, music inspired by Middle Eastern sounds and rhythms, and jazz!

Oboist Jeanette Zyko, praised by Fanfare Magazine and ArtsNash for her “refined playing” and “achingly beautiful lines,” enjoys an active career as a chamber and orchestra musician.

A versatile artist, Zyko has played music ranging from 20th-century composer Louis Andriessen to Baroque composer Jan Zelenka, and her solo and chamber music performances have taken her across the United States and abroad. Equally at home as an orchestra musician, Zyko has performed with the Nashville Symphony, Nashville Opera, Indianapolis Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Gateway Chamber Orchestra and Paducah Symphony. 

Prior to joining the faculty of JMU in 2016, Zyko held positions at Austin Peay State University and the University of Costa Rica. She received her training at Hartt School of Music, Butler University, and Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Humbert Lucarelli, Malcolm Smith and Stephen Taylor.

Lori Piitz enjoys an exciting musical life that includes such diverse opportunities as a solo recital at Steinway Hall in New York City, a four-hand recital at the Kennedy Center, and performing in a German opera house dressed as a baby chick! She has performed at music festivals in the US and abroad, including festivals of the American Liszt Society, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany and the Music & Beyond Festival and Festival of the Sound in Canada.

Ms. Piitz was recently the piano soloist in Gershwin’s Variations on “I Got Rhythm” for piano and orchestra at the Staunton Music Festival.  Her interest in pianist health led to membership in PAMA (Performing Arts Medicine Association) and studies in injury-preventive piano technique with Dr. Barbara Lister-Sink.  In 2002, Ms. Piitz joined the faculty at JMU where she works with talented piano students and teaches graduate courses in pedagogy, piano literature, and “Preparing for the Job Market.”