About

Ingrid Jacobson Clarfield, Professor of Piano Emerita at Westminster Choir College of Rider University is a is a nationally recognized performer, lecturer and author. She has presented workshops, lecture-recitals, and master classes in over 175 cities in 40 states across North America, including State and National MTNA Conferences, National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy, and other prestigious conferences and festivals. Professor Clarfield has written twenty-six books, and is the subject of a documentary entitled: Take a Bow: the Ingrid Clarfield Story.

In 2006, Professor Clarfield was named MTNA Foundation Fellow and in 2009 was the 1 st recipient of the NJMTA Teacher of the Year award. In 2012, she was awarded the prestigious MTNA Teacher of the Year and in 2015 she received the NCKP Lifetime Achievement Award. She received the first Jacobs Music Steinway Al C. Rinaldi Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. In 2018, the Music Educators Association of NJ also awarded her their Lifetime Achievement Award. Professor Clarfield was inducted into the first Steinway and Sons Teachers Hall of Fame in 2019. In 2024 she was the recipient of the MTNA Distinguished Service Award.

Clarfield maintains a private studio where her pre-college students have won hundreds of awards in state, national, and international competitions resulting in performances in such venues as Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Kennedy Center, Merkin Concert Hall, Steinway Hall, and concert halls in Beijing. 19 of her students have won the MTNA Competition at the State Level, with 7 having won the Eastern Division progressing to the National Finals. One student, Damien Dixon, was the First Prize National Winner. Most significant to Professor Clarfield is her students’ involvement in community outreach concerts raising money for charities benefitting children and performing for nursing homes and other adult facilities.