As a faculty member in the Department of Music at The Ohio State University at Lima, Dr. Michael Benson coordinates the group piano program and teaches general art education courses as well as music appreciation.

As soloist and collaborative pianist, he has performed at the Smithsonian Institution during the International Schubert Symposium, Steinway Hall as a winner in The Pinault Biennial International Piano Competition, and Preston Bradley Hall on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series heard on National Public Radio affiliate WFMT 98.7 FM from Chicago.

He has presented lectures, adjudicated and performed for international, national and state conventions of the College Music Society and Music Teachers National Association(MTNA). He has contributed articles to Texas Music Teacher, American Music Teacher, Teaching Music, Clavier, Keyboard Companion and the on-line journal Piano Pedagogy Forum.

His teaching includes faculty appointments at Carl Sandburg College, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Oakland University as well as pre-college piano camps in Texas, Wisconsin, Ohio, and beginning Summer 2005, he will join the piano faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. During Fall 2001, he served as a foreign expert in the Art Education College of Ji Mei University (Xiamen, Peoples Republic of China) where he taught piano and group piano.

Professional responsibilities include election to the National Certification Commission under the auspices of MTNA as well as serving as Ohio Music Teachers Associations State Chair for Professional Piano Certification. His piano and piano pedagogy teachers include Esther Mills Wood, Samuel Driggers, Noel Engebretson, Robert Roux, Martha Hilley, Sophia Gilmson and Nancy Garrett. Dr. Benson holds degrees in piano performance from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and The University of Texas at Austin.

22.09.2008 г.