Creative People Joined Together

Dr. Michael Benson, NCTM, serves as the Executive Director of the Richland Academy of the Arts (RAA) in Mansfield, Ohio. He began this appointment in July 2022. Before his appointment at the RAA, he served as Professor of Music at Malone University, where he was Coordinator of Keyboard Studies and Director of the Malone University Preparatory Program for eleven years. He served for eight years as Department Chair of Music, two years as Department Chair for Visual Arts, and completed a two-year term as Faculty Chair in May 2019. After retiring, he was awarded the title of Professor of Music Emeritus by the Board of Trustees of Malone University in May 2023 for outstanding service. He has performed at the Smithsonian Institution, Steinway Hall in New York, and at Preston Bradley Hall in Chicago as part of the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series. He has contributed piano pedagogy articles to the Music Teachers National Association’s (MTNA) E-Journal, Texas Music Teacher, American Music Teacher, Teaching Music, Keyboard Companion, Clavier, and the online journal Piano Pedagogy Forum. He served on the editorial committee for the Music Teachers National Association’s E-Journal for four years. He served on the Pedagogy Students and Young Professionals committee for the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy at The New School for Music Study. In 2010, he was invited to present his research on group piano during the Group Piano and Piano Pedagogy Symposium at The University of Texas at Austin and has been invited to present piano master classes at the First Annual Piano Pedagogy Symposium at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music during the Second Annual Piano Pedagogy Symposium and at Brigham Young University for the Third Annual Piano Pedagogy Symposium. He has also read research papers at the First Music Technology Conference (2001) in Nanjing, People's Republic of China (PRC), and at the World Piano Conference (2008) in Novi Sad, Serbia. Dr. Benson has been a dedicated member of the Ohio Music Teachers Association (OhioMTA), serving as Buckeye Auditions Chairperson and holding roles such as State Chair for Professional Piano Certification. His ongoing commitment to arts education is reflected in his current service as a Board member of the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education, emphasizing his leadership in fostering arts advocacy. Past teaching appointments include summer music camps in Texas, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Illinois, as well as nine summers being inspired by piano campers at Interlochen Summer Arts Camp. He has also taught at the Ohio State University – Lima, Oakland University (MI), the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater, and Carl Sandburg College in Illinois. During Fall 2001, he was invited to teach piano, piano pedagogy, and group piano as a foreign expert at JiMei University in Xiamen, PRC. Dr. Benson holds a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where he studied piano with Dr. Robert Roux. He holds the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from The University of Texas at Austin, where he studied piano and piano pedagogy with Professors Martha Hilley, Sophia Gilmson, and Nancy Garrett. Michael and his wife, Denise, live in Lexington, Ohio, where Denise teaches high school math and coaches the Lexington High School boys' and girls' cross-country teams. They have one son, Kevin, a Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University, and a wonderful daughter-in-law, Mrs. Ali Turner, a physical therapist at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.