Competition Founder

Tonya Pruhs - Founder and Director

tonyaSLPC@gmail.com

Tonya Graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy and Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Utah State University (USU). She studied piano full time with nationally respected teacher, Gary Amano while attending USU on full piano and academic scholarships.
Awarded Teacher of the Year for the USU Youth Conservatory, Sterling Scholar in music for Bingham High School.
She has taught private piano and musicianship classes for 41 years. Was a faculty member and musicianship teacher for the USU Conservatory for 11 years, USU Adjuct Faculty for 3 years. Was also a member of the faculty at the Park City Music Conservatory where she taught early childhood music classes. Tonya has trained many beginning piano teachers in her Piano Pedagogy Workshops for the past 15 years. She has judged many piano competitions in Utah and Idaho over the years.
A long time member of the Utah Music Teacher Association (UMTA) and Music Teacher National Association (MTNA) and a member of Guild and Federation. She has given many lectures in UMTA on various pedagogy topics and has held various positions including heading the Piano Evaluations program and UMTA Piano Competitions. She also has helped teachers receive their NCTM Certification. Her students consistently receive high ratings in competitions and evaluations. Her students have won awards in many competitions including: USU Piano Festival, Utah State Fair Competition, UMTA Concerto Competition, Future Music Teachers Competition, Joy Robin, Weber State Festival, UMTA Evaluations. Two of her students have performed in Carnegie Hall from winning the American Protege competition. Also, a few of her high school students have performed in Concerto Night in various Utah high schools. A few of her students have continued their musical studies at the university level as piano majors. Many others have gone on to be great members of society in their careers using the skills aquired in her studio: self motivation, high achieving, hard working.
Tonya enjoys teaching and preparing students for performance, especially competitions.