The American Piano Duo

Del Parkinson and Jeffrey Shumway have been performing together since 1984. They originally met while attending the internationally acclaimed Juilliard School of Music in New York. They formed The American Piano Duo, and after securing university teaching positions they performed together throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe.

Del Parkinson received postgraduate degrees from Indiana University and Juilliard School of Music. He has performed with major orchestras, was featured in a solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall, and continues to enjoy an active solo and teaching career. He began teaching in 1970 at Indiana University, spent nine years teaching at Ricks College, and has been the professor of piano at Boise State University since leaving Ricks College in 1986. He received numerous awards including the Fulbright-Hays grant for graduate study in London, the Kellogg Foundation grant for curriculum at Furman University, the Idaho Commission on the Arts grant for his New York recital debut, and the Idaho Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.

Jeffrey Shumway also received postgraduate degrees from Indiana University and Juilliard School of Music. He currently serves as the professor of piano and head of keyboard studies, and has been a Brigham Young University faculty member since 1985. In 1990, he completed a series of ten recitals featuring the complete thirty-two sonatas of Beethoven, for which he received high acclaim. He received the inaugural Gina Bachauer Medal of Artistic Distinction. He is a two-time recipient of the Creative Excellence Award from the College of Fine Arts and Communications at Brigham Young University.

The American Piano Duo released their first compact disc, Celebrating Gershwin!, in 1998-the centennial year of the composer’s birth. Their newest compact disc features a Concerto for Two Pianos by Felix Mendelssohn.

Parkinson and Shumway are two of the four artists in the American Piano Quartet, and have performed in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The group has also released a compact disc.