Beth Trez

     Beth has been playing piano since the age of five.  She started out playing classical music for fifteen years and attended Shenandoah University to obtain a degree in classical performance.  For her minor she chose jazz piano and two years later, switched her major from classical to jazz studies.  While at Shenandoah, Beth played piano in the conservatory’s Jazz Ensemble and various jazz combos.  The Jazz Ensemble provided an opportunity for Beth to play with such jazz greats as Saul Miller and Kirk McGettrick.  With the Jazz Ensemble, Beth toured Germany, France, and Spain.  During her years at Shenandoah, Beth started a swing band and a jazz/funk band. She also played cocktail piano for an agent in the Washington D.C. area.

             After graduating from Shenandoah, Beth moved to New York City to work in Electric Lady recording studios.  She decided to go to graduate school while in New York City at New York University where she studied jazz piano with Don Friedman and obtained a master’s degree in music education.  Her thesis was on jazz education in the high school general music classroom.  While in New York, Beth also had the opportunity to play in various jazz groups.

             Beth moved to Pennsylvania three years ago and has been teaching in the public schools.  While teaching music at the elementary school, she started a jazz club with the instrumental students who performed at Elizabethtown College in a clinic with jazz bassist, Eddie Gomez, and jazz pianist, Mark Kramer, who Beth was invited to play with.  She recently resigned from the public schools to start her own piano studio and pursue her performance career. Beth is currently working on a doctoral degree in music education for which she is developing a jazz piano curriculum for children.