Barbara Fast
Biography
Barbara Fast serves on the piano faculty at the University of Oklahoma as Professor Emeritus. Dr. Fast received the 2025 Frances Clark Center Lifetime Achievement Award with recognition celebrated at the 2025 NCKP Conference. Dr. Fast was the 2020 recipient of OU’s prestigious David Ross Boyd Professor Award for excellence in teaching, and in 2014 OU’s Regents Award for Superior Teaching.
Her lifelong interest in effective teaching eventually led Dr. Fast to researching and discussing the practical applications of sports, brain, and educational research for practicing and teaching in the private lesson and group class. She has contributed a chapter to the forthcoming The Cambridge Companion to Piano Pedagogy (Cambridge University Press). A culmination of her interest in effective practicing and learning and their integration with current and future technology, resulted in the book iPractice: Technology in the 21st Century Music Practice Room (Oxford, 2018). Frequent workshop topics by Dr. Fast include efficient practicing tips from sports and brain research, overcoming performance anxiety, the brain and learning, sight-reading, teaching ensemble music, newly published music, and historical keyboard pedagogy.
An active clinician and adjudicator, Dr. Fast has presented at Music Teachers National Conferences (MTNA), International and National College Music Society Conferences (CMS), ISME International Conferences, The Classical Music Festival Eisenstadt, Hawaii International Conferences on Arts and Humanities, NCKP National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, EPTA International Conference, and numerous MTA state conferences. Dr. Fast’s articles and reviews have been published in Music Performance Research, American Music Teacher, The Piano Magazine, and the New School for Music Study blog. Additionally, she has performed in chamber settings in England, Russia, Japan, and India as well as presented lecture recitals and master classes throughout the United States.
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A devoted teacher, Dr. Fast’s students have won numerous awards and secured teaching positions nationally and internationally, including in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia. The OU collegiate chapter won the MTNA national Chapter of the Year award in 2017, 2009, and 2007. In recognition of her guidance and mentoring of students, Dr. Fast was the recipient of the Oklahoma Music Teacher of the Year award and OU’s Irene and Julian Rothbaum Presidential Professor of Excellence in the Arts.
Dr. Fast co-founded the National Group Piano and Piano Pedagogy Forum (GP3) in 2000, a biannual conference affiliated with MTNA that focuses on group piano and piano pedagogy teaching. The next GP3 Forum is scheduled for August 2026. An active member of the Music Teachers National Association, she served as Vice President of Membership on the National MTNA Board, on the GP3 Executive Committee and is Past-President of the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association. She has served in numerous national and state MTNA and NCKP piano pedagogy related positions, including the Editorial Board of the MTNA E-Journal, and as Associate Editor of Piano Pedagogy Forum.
Former faculty appointments include the University of Northern Iowa, Hesston College, and Woodstock International School in India. Her broad interests are represented in her undergrad degree with a double-major in piano and flute, paired with a minor in English. When she is not teaching, presenting workshops, or engaging in research, she enjoys hiking, traveling, and interacting with family and friends.
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Links
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Listen to Barbara Fast's Podcast with Ben Kapilow, All Keyed UP: Let's Talk About Practicing
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Read her Question and Answer Column in Piano Magazine, Winter 2023-2024
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