Peter Amstutz
Professor - Piano
Peter Amstutz is Professor of Piano at West Virginia University. A medalist in the Casagrande International Piano Competition in Italy and a prizewinner in the Maryland International Piano Competition (subsequently renamed in honor of William Kapell), Amstutz has performed throughout Europe and the United States. He has also made many tours of Asia, presenting recitals and master classes in major cities of Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Peoples Republic of China.
Examples of critical acclaim for performances by Peter Amstutz have appeared in The New York Times (“Sweetly singing tone…”), the Denver Post (“Crisp, crystalline touch…a joyous performance”), the Edinburgh, Scotland Evening News (“Fresh and stylish…a fine performance”) and the Saarbruecken, Germany Saarbruecker Zeitung (“A great talent…unforgettable”).
Amstutz has served as judge for the National Piano Festival in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; for the William S. Boyd International Piano Competition in Georgia; and for the 2018 Thailand International Piano Competition in Bangkok. Adjudications for MTNA have included, among others, the multi-state Eastern Division and the 2020 Florida online Young Artists auditions. The 2020 Shanghai International Online Piano Competition commissioned Dr. Amstutz to create a two-hour video (https://youtu.be/KiLLnMzJl5U), entitled “Living with Beethoven,” as a featured presentation, with Mandarin subtitles.
During his student days at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Peter Amstutz earned his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees as a student of Leon Fleisher and his Bachelor of Music degree with Walter Hautzig. Through those masters and their teachers (Artur Schnabel, Theodor Leschetizky, and Carl Czerny), his lineage traces directly back to Beethoven. His 1977 doctoral dissertation (Peabody Conservatory) was a book-length analytical study of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111. As a Fulbright Scholar, he also studied in Austria for two years with Dieter Weber and Noel Flores at the Vienna Academy of Music.
Prior to joining the WVU faculty in 1988, Prof. Amstutz taught at the University of Colorado and at Oklahoma State University, where he received OSU’s highest prize for individual professors, the Burlington-Northern Faculty Achievement Award. He brings an enthusiastic and friendly approach to his teaching, which emphasizes thoughtful and practical suggestions for individual interpretation. Among his former students are many competition prizewinners and current faculty members at universities throughout the United States and Asia. In Bangkok, Thailand, a school of music is founded in his name: (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10dN9_OJ7fbVu8BMqF3cmwJRRhyCdh2yK?usp=sharing).
Dr. Amstutz, who joined the WVU faculty in 1988, has announced partial retirement for May, 2024, and will no longer be accepting newly enrolled students.
