 Valerie Cisler, piano/piano pedagogy (Professor) is an active performer, author, clinician and adjudicator. She has premiered many works at state, regional and national conventions throughout the U.S.; performances include the Festival of Women Composers-International at Indiana University of Pennsylvania; the Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Tennessee State Music Teachers Conferences; the MTNA National Conference, Washington, D.C.; the American Composers Alliance New Music Festival, Symphony Space, New York City; NASA International Conference, Bangkok, Thailand; and the College Music Society International Conference, University of Costa Rica-San Jose.
Dr. Cisler co-authored the Composition Book series for Alfred Publishing Company, Van Nuys, CA, as part of Alfred's Basic Piano Library; and Technique for the Advancing Pianist with Maurice Hinson. The books receive international distribution, including Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, United Kingdom, and the U.S., with a translation of four books to Korean in 2002. She has served as an Alfred Piano Clinician, giving workshops for piano teachers and college faculty throughout the U.S. and Canada. Dr. Cisler has spoken at numerous conference workshops and panels, most recently featured at the 2008 Group Piano/Piano Pedagogy National Conference and the 2010 MTNA National Conference in Albuquerque, and has written articles for Clavier, Piano Teacher Rendezvous: Teacher Forum, the Kentucky Music Teachers Journal, Prairie Mosaic, and the Platte Valley Review: Music in the Midwest. Her research activities have led to a major grant from the Nebraska Humanities Council, poster session at the MTNA Conference in Minneapolis, and election as Fellow to the NU Center for Great Plains Studies. Her DMA document, The Piano Sonatas of Robert Muczynski, was selected for inclusion in the permanent collection of The Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2005, she received the UNK Pratt-Heins Award for Scholarship.
In 1993, Dr. Cisler received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma where she studied with Edward Gates, E.L. Lancaster and Jane Magrath. Her previous teaching experience includes a three-year faculty appointment at Eastern New Mexico University. She joined the U.N.K. faculty in 1994, where she teaches applied and class piano, directs the piano pedagogy program, and serves as Chair for the Department of Music & Performing Arts. She is a member of the Society for American Music, College Music Society, Phi Kappa Phi honor society, Nebraska Music Teachers Association, and holds National Certification with MTNA. In 2006, Dr. Cisler received the UNK Creative Teaching Award and the 2007 University of Nebraska system-wide Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award (OTICA). Click here for Quicktime video.
 email: cislerv@unk.edu
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