Amber Shay Nicholson
Assistant Professor of Piano
D.M.A., Eastman School of Music
M.M., Eastman School of Music
B.M., Eastman School of Music
E-mail: Amber.Shay@usm.edu
Piano Department
Amber Shay Nicholson holds a doctorate in piano performance from Eastman School of Music and has been a member of the keyboard faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi since 2004. In addition to teaching and adjudicating, she performs regularly as both a solo pianist and a collaborative artist.
Performance highlights include a 2006 concert tour of several Mississippi universities, performing as soloist with the Southern Miss Orchestra and choirs; and a 2002 invitation to the International Workshops in Stavanger, Norway, where she performed regularly as soloist and accompanist. That same summer, Nicholson gave several solo performances at the International Summer Music Academy in Leipzig, Germany. She also won the 2001 Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3 piano concerto competition at Eastman and performed it with orchestra.
Honors include being the only U.S. citizen to be accepted into the 2001 TCU/Van Cliburn International Piano Institute in Fort Worth, TX. And, from 1996-2004, Nicholson was named a Liberace Scholar at Eastman School of Music and received scholarship support from the Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts. While at Eastman, she studied extensively with Nelita True, and served as her studio assistant. Dr. Nicholson received her professional certification as a teacher of piano from the Music Teachers National Association in 2005.