Program

Richard Masters is a pianist, chamber musician, opera coach, and orchestral pianist based in Blacksburg, Virginia, where he serves as Associate Professor of Piano and Collaborative Piano on the music faculty at Virginia Tech’s School of Performing Arts.

Masters performs a broad range of repertoire that includes both traditional works and contemporary compositions written for or commissioned by him. A passionate advocate for early 20th-century British music, he is especially admired for his interpretations of the solo piano works of John Ireland, which he has performed throughout the United States and in the United Kingdom. His recording of Ireland’s The Cherry Tree has been played numerous times on BBC Radio 3, the only recording of Ireland’s music by an American pianist to be so featured. Masters is a strong supporter of contemporary American composers, having given world premieres of music by Kenneth Frazelle, Joel Love, Charles Nichols, Kent Holliday, and others.

Masters’s performances have taken him across the United States and Europe, including appearances at the English Music Festival in Oxfordshire, UK; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s “Music at the Gardner” series; the San Francisco Conservatory; the Schola Cantorum in Paris; and other concerts in the Americas and Europe. He has collaborated with distinguished artists such as Grammy-winning baritone Donnie Ray Albert, flutist Valerie Coleman, mezzo-soprano Marta Senn, former Boston Symphony principal trombonist Norman Bolter, and former Juilliard String Quartet violinist Earl Carlyss. He performed under the late Lorin Maazel as a member of the orchestra in the 2006 Castleton production of The Turn of the Screw in Virginia and at the Kennedy Center.

Masters has recorded albums for the Albany, Blue Griffin, E-M Records, and Heritage labels. His 2020 album Let Evening Come: American Art Songs Old and New with sopranos Ariana Wyatt and Emily Martin was selected as one of the “best classical recordings of 2020” by Chicago Tribune critic Howard Reich in his annual end-of-year column.

In addition to his concert work as a pianist, Masters is active in opera and musical theatre as a coach and conductor. He is the music director of Druid City Opera in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he has conducted productions of Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rigoletto, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Tosca. Other recent conducting projects have included productions of Carousel, Fiorello!, Oh, Kay!, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. He has also served as an associate head coach with the Pittsburgh Festival Opera, working on Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Strauss’s Arabella. In 2019, Masters and his colleague Amanda Nelson revived The Sap of Life, a 1961 musical by the Broadway writing duo Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire; Maltby and Shire visited Virginia Tech, working with VT students in a workshop setting to present a significant portion of the score in concert.

His writings on pianists, piano music and pedagogy, opera, and musical theatre have appeared in publications such as American Music Teacher, MTNA E-Journal, Studies in Musical Theatre Journal, and The Record Collector. He regularly writes recording reviews for the Association of Recorded Sound Collections Journal, Piano Magazine, and MusicwebInternational. Masters is also the author of Encyclopedia of American Classical Pianists: 1800s to the Present, a comprehensive reference book on American pianists published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2023.

A dedicated educator, Masters teaches applied piano, class piano, accompanying, lyric diction, and Opera Workshop at Virginia Tech, where he has been on faculty since 2013. Prior to his arrival at Tech, Masters was an opera coach at the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler Opera Center. He himself studied at the University of Colorado at Boulder with Robert Spillman (Bachelor of Music); the Juilliard School with Brian Zeger, Margo Garrett (Master of Music); and at the Eastman School of Music with Jean Barr and Douglas Humpherys (Doctor of Musical Arts).

Erica Ann Sipes received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Rebecca Penneys and Nelita True. She has also studied cello with Irene Sharp and with Paul Katz and has studied piano collaboration and accompanying with Jean Barr at the Eastman School and with Anne Epperson at the Music Academy of the West. Ms. Sipes debuted with the Chamber Soloists of San Francisco at age 10 and has also performed with the Chelsea Chamber Players in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has worked as a staff accompanist at the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival and has been to Prague and to St. Petersburg as the pianist for various choirs. Her playing has also brought her to the La Terasse Restaurant in Interlaken, Switzerland and to the Bella Voce Restaurant in San Francisco where she served as music director.

Ms. Sipes currently lives in Roanoke, Virginia. Much of her time is spent accompanying young musicians, playing chamber music with friends and colleagues in the community, teaching piano, and working on the Piano Music She Wrote project that she and pianist Sandra Mogensen started in the Spring of 2020. She is also a staff pianist and the practice/performance coach for the entire music department at Radford University. Ms. Sipes regularly plays piano for Opera Roanoke, the Roanoke Symphony, and the Roanoke Symphony Chorus. In the summer of 2012 she officially launched her own business as a practice coach, offering coachings, workshops, planning sessions, and practice boot-camps for anyone that could use some help with practicing.  She is also a co-founder and pianist of the Alma Ensemble, a trio dedicated to championing women in music, education, and creating connection through music. Erica Ann Sipes received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Rebecca Penneys and Nelita True. She has also studied cello with Irene Sharp and with Paul Katz and has studied piano collaboration and accompanying with Jean Barr at the Eastman School and with Anne Epperson at the Music Academy of the West. Ms. Sipes debuted with the Chamber Soloists of San Francisco at age 10 and has also performed with the Chelsea Chamber Players in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has worked as a staff accompanist at the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival and has been to Prague and to St. Petersburg as the pianist for various choirs. Her playing has also brought her to the La Terasse Restaurant in Interlaken, Switzerland and to the Bella Voce Restaurant in San Francisco where she served as music director.

Ms. Sipes currently lives in Roanoke, Virginia. Much of her time is spent accompanying young musicians, playing chamber music with friends and colleagues in the community, teaching piano, and working on the Piano Music She Wrote project that she and pianist Sandra Mogensen started in the Spring of 2020. She is also a staff pianist and the practice/performance coach for the entire music department at Radford University. Ms. Sipes regularly plays piano for Opera Roanoke, the Roanoke Symphony, and the Roanoke Symphony Chorus. In the summer of 2012 she officially launched her own business as a practice coach, offering coachings, workshops, planning sessions, and practice boot-camps for anyone that could use some help with practicing.  She is also a co-founder and pianist of the Alma Ensemble, a trio dedicated to championing women in music, education, and creating connection through music.

American Mezzo-Soprano LaTetra Lewis has been hailed for her “rich voice and magnetic stage presence.” Her operatic studies began at the renowned Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, VA. She continued her studies with Dr. William Christensen in Oklahoma, and with Dr. Vivian Dettbarn-Slaughter in Michigan and now studies with Larry Giddens, Jr in Norfolk.

LaTetra has performed the role of Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, the unstable psychic Madame Flora in Menotti’s The Medium, and the Third Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. A frequent soloist in concerts, conferences, and festivals; she was featured as a special guest for the current Governor of Virginia in a special performance with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra at the Virginia State Capitol Building for the VA 250 Independence Day celebration.

LaTetra has been a member of the Virginia Opera chorus since the 2008 season, with recent performances including La Traviata and Madama Butterfly. She recently toured with the company in their 2025 production of the new world premiere opera by Damien Geter, Loving v. Virginia.

Ms. Lewis is now based in Virginia Beach. In addition to her professional work, she performs at events in support of the arts and the community.