Faculty Profile

Jeffrey Panko
NMS Piano Faculty
Fellows Program Faculty

New Music School piano faculty member Jeffrey Panko is thrilled to have the opportunity to explore two of his greatest passions in life, his deep love of music and his strong belief in the necessity of a solid musical education for our children and youth.  Jeffrey believes that any person can successfully learn to play the piano and his philosophy of teaching embraces the concept of structured learning around the specific talents and needs of each individual student.  A concert pianist based in the Chicagoland area with over 20 years of private teaching experience, Panko willingly brings his depth of musical knowledge as soloist, collaborative pianist, professional teacher and coach as well as possessing a unique ability to successfully interact with his students to enhance each individual student’s musical and pianistic development.

Although trained primarily as a classical pianist, Jeffrey feels that the integration of all styles of music is essential to the musical development of any pianist.  He strongly believes that teaching repertoire from Bach to Beethoven to Brubeck involves the creative processes of delving into not only the musical structure of each work and genre of music studied as well as a physically healthy and goal oriented technical approach, but also involves imparting pertinent and helpful guidelines for memorization and successful performance skills.  All this and the journey of helping each student thrive on the excitement of this learning process is why Jeffrey values his role as educator for New Music School.

Jeffrey received degrees in Piano Performance from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and the DePaul University School of Music and has earned top prize awards in competitions including the Society of American Musician’s Piano Competition (Chicago) and the Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition (New York). Following a concert tour of Poland where Jeff was honored by the United States with the title of Cultural Ambassador, he was asked by the City of Chicago to present a Chopin recital for the visiting Lech Walesa and other Polish dignitaries, culminating with two Command Performances for Polish Prime Ministers. Jeff has been featured in performances at Carnegie Hall, Weill Hall, Lincoln Center Library, WQXR Radio (New York), is a frequent performer on WFMT Radio (Chicago), and has appeared in Symphony Center playing the music of Steven Sondheim for Mr. Sondheim. He has performed in concert with internationally acclaimed artists Denyce Graves, Christopher Robertson, Mary Stolper, members of the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, the Washington Opera Orchestra and has appeared as soloist with orchestras throughout the United States.

If you would like to contact Mr. Panko, please email him at jeffpanko@newmusicschool.com.