“To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts—such is the duty of the artist.”
Photograph by Martin Cohen Photography
REPERTOIRE LISTS
Pianist Regan Russell is driven by a passion for musical collaboration, storytelling and scholarship, and joyful creativity. Raised in the Pacific Northwest and spending her graduate school years in Boston, Dr. Russell relocated with her Air Force husband to Los Angeles, California, in September of 2021. She currently works as a staff pianist in the voice departments of El Camino College and Santa Monica College, as pianist for the Joanna Medawar Nachef Singers, and as a freelance accompanist, vocal coach, and private piano teacher. She is also pianist, secretary, and website manager for the Gena Branscombe Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to the revival of music by Canadian American composer Gena Branscombe.
During her years in Boston, Dr. Russell regularly collaborated with Boston University choirs, vocal and instrumental degree students at Boston University, the BU Opera Institute, MassOpera, and Opera on Tap. In January 2019, she coached and played for t.b.d.opera.projects’ production of Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers; the Boston Musical Intelligencer described her performance as “spectacular, full of subtlety and fire.” For three seasons, she served as pianist for VOICES Boston children’s choir, spent three summers as a vocal coach and pianist at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI), and taught private piano lessons at the Cambridge Music Consortium in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Outside of performing, Dr. Russell enjoys both creative and academic writing. She presented her doctoral dissertation at Boston University in November 2022, a project cataloguing the 150 art songs of Canadian American composer Gena Branscombe. In fall of 2015, she presented her undergraduate honors thesis on depictions of water in the music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, earning her a prestigious “Pass with Distinction” from the WSU Honors College. Dr. Russell’s innate love of words fuels her passion for music composition. Her 2012 self-produced album, Prism, features thirteen original compositions that explore different facets of color. She is currently collecting a repertoire of original Preludes for solo piano.
Dr. Russell is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Kappa Lambda honor societies. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree and a Master of Music degree in Collaborative Piano Performance from Boston University, and a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Washington State University.