Garik Pedersen, a Steinway Artist, is enjoying a rewarding “post-academic” career as a teacher, performer, and researcher in St. Louis, Missouri. His new recording of solo and chamber works for piano by British composer Sasha Johnson Manning will be released in 2025. He was featured in a May, 2024 television documentary on The Victory Vertical Project, his touring lecture-performance that tells the musical story of small pianos built for the military during World War II (Fox Nation, Secret History of WWII, season 3).

His performance career has taken him throughout the US and to Europe, Asia, Canada, Central America, and the Philippines. He has presented programs for the State Department, the National Federation of Music Clubs, and professional music teacher associations in the US, Europe, Canada, and Taiwan. His recordings can be found on the Albany, Regent, and Hornblower labels and he has performed on numerous public television and radio broadcasts.

Pedersen taught for over 30 years at Eastern Michigan University, which granted him emeritus status in 2021. At EMU his piano studio included prizewinners in national, international, regional and state competitions. Since moving to St. Louis, he has had a finalist (2023) and a winner (2024) in the St. Louis Teen Talent Competition at the Fox Theatre.

A scholarship student of Wesley True at the University of Central Missouri, which named him Distinguished Alumnus in Music, he was a DMA piano student of John Simms at the University of Iowa.  Other major influences have been Gyorgy Sebok, Eugene Bossart, and Edwin E. Gordon. Garik is a past president of Michigan Music Teachers Association, which honored him with its Distinguished Service Award in 2016.  He received the Michigan Touchstone Award in 2017 in recognition of his “commitment to Michigan’s artistic excellence and his advocacy for the arts.”

For more information about The Victory Vertical Project: victoryvertical.com