Active in various ways within Madison’s music scene, Jeffrey Stanek is the primary pianist for the UW-Madison Dance Department and the Monona Academy of Dance, as well as Lakeview Moravian Community Church. He recently completed the master’s degree in piano pedagogy and performance at UW-Madison, where he was a student of Jessica Johnson and a teaching assistant in music theory. He teaches lessons privately and through the school’s Piano Pioneers program. For five years, he directed the VSA Choir of Madison for people with disabilities.

Recent performance highlights include Somei Satoh’s The Heavenly Spheres are Illuminated by Lights, with Chelsie Propst and James McKenzie, in the planetarium of the Milwaukee Public Music as part of Present Music’s 2016-17 season; Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians at UW-Madison; and a masterclass with Nadia Boulanger protégé Emile Naoumoff. He presented the pre-premiere of Harbison’s Mark the Date, and in 2014 his composition The Direction in Which the Wind Moves, commissioned by the Token Creek Festival for its 25th anniversary, received its premiere there. Jeff is a past winner of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Birch Creek Music Center concerto competitions.

He graduated with high distinction from Indiana University, studying composition and piano. He’s been a composer fellow at The MacDowell Colony, Tanglewood Music Center, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and a recipient of national awards from ASCAP, BMI, the National Federation of Music Clubs, and the CEMJKO International Electroacoustic Music Prize.