About Us
Founder/President
Lisa Fairchild Ramirez
Lisa Fairchild Ramirez received her Masters Degree in Piano Performance from the University of Memphis in 2005, where she also earned the coveted Performers' Certificate. Her teachers include Samuel Viviano, Genaro Santoro, Sheila Paige, Nina Drath, and her mother, Judith Fairchild. Ms Ramirez has won numerous national and international piano competitions and has performed solo concerts across the United States and Europe, including Carnegie Hall.
She has performed concerti with symphonies in Dallas, Kansas City, Paducah, and Memphis. Ms Ramirez has been an adjudicator for competitions in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. She was a church organist and choir director for 15 years and is an accomplished organist and harpsichordist.
She has written pedagogical material that has been published in the Music Teachers National Association magazine. She has dedicated her life to teaching children, and her students are widely known for their high levels of achievement in performance and competition. She lives in Cordova with her husband and daughter.
Vice President
Ashley Shearin
Ms. Maria brings decades of experience as a distinguished pianist and educator. She holds both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance from the University of Memphis.
She has served in a variety of academic and community roles, including:
Suzuki Piano Instructor and Program Coordinator at the University of Memphis Community Music School.
Piano Instructor at Wesleyan College’s Center for the Arts (Macon, GA)
Visiting Associate Professor of Music at Georgia College & State University (Milledgeville, GA), teaching piano lessons for majors and non-majors as well as Music Appreciation
Adjunct Instructor of Music at Macon State College (Macon, GA)
With her deep knowledge of both performance and pedagogy, Ms. Maria serves as the musical heart of our program, ensuring that every recital reflects excellence, empathy, and connection to our origins.
Secretary/ Treasurer
Maria DeBacco
Adam Booher, Member
Dr. Jenny Cao, Member
Janice Lumpkin, Member
Maeve Brophy, Member
Maeve Brophy of Memphis, TN is Assistant Professor of Music at Rust College, where she teaches applied piano and class piano and also coaches and collaborates with vocalists, instrumentalists, and the Rust College A' Capella Choir. Ms. Brophy is also a collaborative pianist at the University of Memphis, where she performs with students, faculty, and guest artists, and she is the Head of Keyboard Studies at Brown Baptist Academy of Music in Southaven, MS, where she teaches piano to children, teenagers, and adults.
Assistant Professor of Music - Rust College
Collaborative Pianist - University of Memphis
Head of Piano Studies - Brown Academy of Music
Lucas Smith, Member
Lucas Smith is a Memphis native pianist who has performed in various venues and churches in and outside the area. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from the University of Memphis in May 2023. Smith has also studied abroad in Germany recently in the International Summer Academy of Music at the Landesakademie in Ochsenhausen.
In early 2023, He won the Rudi E. Scheidt School Of Music Soloist Competition for His performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no.1. Smith was recently featured in Focus magazine where he was described to have “an ability to conjure emotions out of pure sound”.
Smith currently resides in Memphis with his long time partner and beloved dog. He enjoys creating new ways in which music can communicate and touch the lives of people. He truly believes that music has the unique ability to heal people and give them a sense of peace in times of darkness.
Paula Ward, Member
Linda Wilson, Member
Pom Lim, Honorary Member, Community Outreach Liaison
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