

stefanie watson
piano
Stefanie has been the pianist for the Hopewell Valley Chorus since 2013. She enjoys active involvement in a wide variety of musical facets: as recital collaborator, educator, choral pianist, choir director, and church musician. She has recently performed in and organized recitals in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and her home state of Maryland. In addition, she has served as staff pianist for Lied Austria International, a month-long summer program in Austria that focused on intense study of German art song and poetry. During the academic year, Stefanie can be found at The College of New Jersey performing as a staff pianist, working as a musical director for the Lyric Theatre program, and teaching group keyboard classes to non-music majors.
Stefanie also frequently participates as a pianist in instrumental ensembles, including the Garden State Philharmonic, Adelphi Orchestra, and the Eastern Wind Symphony. She is on the administrative staff and participates in the Bennington Chamber Music Conference, among other chamber music collaborations. An in-demand choral pianist, Stefanie performs with state and regional honor choruses in New Jersey, school choirs of every age, and is a pianist with the Princeton Girlchoir’s Quarter Notes and Ensemble choirs. She has served as a rehearsal pianist for the Princeton Festival’s opera productions and for Manhattan Concert Productions’ Carnegie Hall performance of Robert Schumann’s Requiem, Op. 148, under Dr. Heather Mitchell’s baton.
Stefanie maintains a private teaching studio in Flemington, New Jersey, and is music director at Emanuel Lutheran Church in New Brunswick. She holds a Masters degree in Collaborative Piano from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts and a Bachelors in Piano Performance from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, with a minor in Spanish. Stefanie lives in Highland Park, where her cats, Cinnamon and Kalahari, rule the roost.