Jerry Perkins, Professor of Music at Middle Tennessee State University is a pianist whose many performances throughout the United States have earned him a reputation as a talented interpreter of a wide variety of music. Both as a solo artist and as a chamber musician he has captivated audiences and critics alike with a brilliant technique and a keen sense of style. Andrew Adler, music critic for The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, wrote of Perkins’ recent recital there: “Pianist Jerry Perkins spared himself few difficulties in his recital last night. His taxing program included works of many styles, most interpretively intriguing and all fraught with technical challenges. At various points he had to make his instrument sing, growl, roar and shimmer; a mini-dissertation on the piano’s potential sonorities. Perkins proved a persuasive interpreter.”

Perkins, born in Steelville, Missouri, studied with Leo Sirota in St. Louis before attending the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati on a University Honor Scholarship. While there he studied with the well-known pianist/composer, Jeno Takacs, receiving both the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. During his study there he entered and won first prize in the American Music Scholarship Association Competition. Subsequently, he earned a doctorate degree at Boston University under the tutelage of the Hungarian pianist Bela Nagy.

Perkins made his New York debut in Town Hall and has also played there in Carnegie Recital Hall. In addition to concerts in the USA he has performed in Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland, Romania and Ukraine. Mr. Perkins has been heard on radio on WNYC-New York City, WPLN-Nashville, South Carolina Public Radio, National Public Radio, and the Austrian National Radio network. He was co-founder of the Stones River Chamber Players and served as artistic director of that group until 2006. He can be heard on their CD’s, “Music for a Farce” and “On the 20th Century Limited” as well as a solo artist on the Time-Life recordings of music of the Civil War and as a soloist with orchestra on a CD with the Black Sea Philharmonic (Thelassa Records).

In addition to his performing, Perkins is well-known as an excellent and perceptive teacher whose students have won many competitions and have been accepted into graduate schools throughout the country. He is much sought after to give lectures, workshops, master classes and has judged numerous piano competitions throughout the southeast. He has served as president of both the Tennessee Music Teacher’s Association and the Music Teacher’s National Association, Southern Division, and as a member of the National Certification Board of MTNA.