Community Music School Adds Two New Instructors

The Community Music School at Limestone College recently added two new instructors, one for piano and one for voice.

David Kiser, who began studying piano at age 10, is a new piano instructor. He is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance at Converse College. He formerly studied at the University of South Carolina and College of Charleston. Kiser previously took part in the inaugural Genesis Piano Competition in Myrtle Beach where he won first place. He performed Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Carolina Youth Symphony. As part of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, he performed Sergei Rachmaninov’s Concerto No.1 in Charleston and in Perugia, and Spoleto, Italy. Recently he won the Young Artist Concerto Competition at Converse College with Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto. His performances have been broadcast on South Carolina ETV Radio.

Kiser produces and hosts “On The Keys,” an hour of piano music played by virtuoso pianists, for South Carolina ETV Radio, heard in Greenville, Columbia, and Charleston on Thursday’s at 8 p.m.  He lives with his wife, also a pianist, in Simpsonville. 

“We are delighted to have a person of David's caliber join our faculty at the Limestone College Community School,” said Pam Turnage, the Director of Limestone’s CMS program. “He will be offering piano lessons for both children and adults.”

The Community Music School’s new vocal instructor, Aimée Dumouchel Gans, graduated from Converse College in May with her Master of Music in Vocal Performance, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Spanish from Erskine College in 2012.  A frequent face on stages and concert venues in the upstate, she has performed with opera companies and theatre groups, sung with choirs, and appeared as a featured soloist. 

Gans has recently performed with the Converse Symphony as a Young Artist winner, sung as the alto soloist in Handel's Messiah, and appeared as the title role in Gilbert & Sullivan's Iolanthe.  This fall, when not teaching her preschool class, she is busy directing the Spartanburg Repertory Company's production of Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors and teaching voice lessons through the Lawson Academy at Converse.

“The voice students in Limestone’s Community Music School are so fortunate to get to study with such an accomplished performer and teacher,” Dr. Gena Poovey, the Chairperson of the Department of Music at Limestone, said of Gans.

This marks the fifth year that the Community Music School at Limestone College is offering quality music instruction to students of all ages.  The program offers private lessons in piano, brass, percussion, woodwinds, guitar, drumming, and voice.  Lessons are available from members of the Limestone music faculty as well as upper class music students at Limestone.

“We are committed to cultivating and promoting music appreciation in our community,” Dr. Poovey noted. “Our mission is to enrich the lives of individuals by offering quality music instruction to people of all ages.”

In most cases, Limestone’s Community Music School lessons are held in the Carroll School of Fine Arts building on the campus of the liberal arts institution.

Enrollment is underway now through the Limestone College website: www.limestone.edu.  The cost of four monthly 30-minute sessions is $88 with a professional music educator, or $48 with a student instructor.  There is also a one-time enrollment fee of $44 and $24, respectively.  The enrollment fee serves as payment for the last two sessions.