Benjamin Krumwiede

Benjamin Krumwiede is a pianist, composer, and an educator of music. A dream prompted eleven-year-old Krumwiede to ask his mother for music lessons. After a few months of learning the basics, his music teacher encouraged him to take piano lessons. In August of 2005, he started studying the art of piano performance with Kathy Kochheiser of Claremore, Oklahoma. One year later he composed his first “real” piece of music and began composition lessons with Claudette Hudelson of Broken-Arrow, Oklahoma. At 15, he was accepted to study piano and composition with the University of Tulsa piano professor Dr. William Roger Price, who is now the head of the piano department. Studies with Dr. Price led to Mr. Krumwiede being named the Parriott Scholar of 2011-2015 at the University of Tulsa – the most prestigious scholarship awarded to a music student. Krumwiede graduated magna cum laude from the University of Tulsa in May of 2015 with a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance and graduated in May of 2020 with a Master of Music degree in Music Composition from the University of Oklahoma.

 

Mr. Krumwiede has competed in numerous competitions. In 2007, after two years of study, he competed in competitions with pieces like the first movement of Beethoven’s “Pathetique” Piano Sonata No.8 in C minor, op.13. During the same year he was also the first place winner of the OMTA Composition Competition. When he was 17, he won first place in the notable national composition competition for MTNA. Benjamin has competed in the Bela Rozsa Composition Competition for eight years and won first or second prize in six of them. Krumwiede was named winner of the first annual Trio Tulsa composition competition where Trio Tulsa performed his piano trio in February of 2015. He also had his fixed media piece Variations on Isolated Sounds performed in the International Computer Music Conference in 2019. Recently, Krumwiede was invited to have his work Clarinet Clippings performed in the 2020 New York City Electronic Music Festival, but alas, the event was canceled due to COVID-19.

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Additionally, Benjamin Krumwiede is active in performance venues. He has performed extensively in Tulsa, including series like “Performance at the Mansion,” Amy Cottingham’s “Monthly Musicales,” and Hyechka recitals. He has also performed all over Oklahoma as well as in other states such as New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois. He played in various chamber groups, particularly a piano quartet, a horn trio, and a piano duo. The horn trio group performed the entire Brahms horn trio, op.40. Krumwiede performed his very own piano quartet in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Along with pianist Abigail Gschwend, he participated twice in the Chicago Duo Piano Festival in Chicago, Illinois and performed pieces like the full Rachmaninoff suite for two pianos, op.17 and Dvorak’s Slavonic dances, op.72. He also met the famous Anderson and Roe piano duo in Florida and had a lesson with them.

 

As an educator, Krumwiede has been invited to two different studios to give a recital/lecture. He has been teaching private piano lessons since fall of 2010. Additionally, he tutored peers in music theory at the University of Tulsa. Mr. Krumwiede taught at Undercroft Montessori School as a piano teacher from 2013 until he graduated in 2015 and taught at Justus-Tiawah Public School from 2015 until 2017.  Benjamin spends the majority of his time performing and composing in addition to teaching class piano and music appreciation at Western Heights High School where he was named the 2019-2020 teacher of the year.