“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, Dr. Russell has spent her young professional years between Boston, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. She currently serves as Associate Pianist for the D.C. chapter of the National Children’s Chorus, and as a freelance accompanist, vocal coach, and private piano teacher in the D.C. area. 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 graduate 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. For three seasons, she served as pianist for VOICES Boston children’s choir and spent three summers as a vocal coach and pianist at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI). After relocating to Los Angeles in September 2021, she stepped into roles as a staff pianist at both El Camino College and Santa Monica College, and as pianist for the Joanna Medawar Nachef Singers. With a strong calling toward education, Dr. Russell has especially sought out opportunities to work with children and young adults, including teaching music classes at Parnassus Preparatory Academy, music directing a spring musical at Loyola High School, and teaching dozens of private piano students.
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.