Prof. Gary Bogers Jr. is part of the adjunct piano faculty at Utah Tech University. He teaches private lessons in solo piano, coaches piano accompanying, evaluates piano juries, lectures music appreciation courses and also serves as a staff accompanist for university concerts/recitals. Prof. Bogers earned his Bachelor of Arts in Music and M.A. from the University of Central Florida, and worked there as a graduate teaching associate for class piano and music appreciation from 2020 to 2022. His studies included those with Dr. Yun-Ling Casimir, Dr. Joe Gennaro, Dr. Thomas Harrison and Prof. Hannah Sun, resulting in acceptance into the Phi Kappa Phi and Pi Kappa Lambda honors societies. Recent concerts have included repertoire ranging from Classical to late Romanticism, including Piano Concerto No. 20 in D-Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Cello Sonata No. 1 by Ludwig van Beethoven and ConcertoGrosso No. 1 by Ernest Bloch. Prof. Bogers has also served as faculty for the Castle Rock Piano camp alongside faculty members Dr. Nancy Allred and Prof. Mark Gubler, collaborating with guest artist Dr. Cahill Smith on Piano Suite No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Additional teaching duties take place at The Piano Place in St. George, Utah where Prof. Bogers maintains a studio of over thirty students.
Prior studies and teaching opportunities included a four-month period teaching English as a second language in China as part of the International Language Program in 2014. The experience found Prof. Bogers teaching lessons through the use of piano and guitar performance, instructing on a variety of English-language poems and songs. He has additionally collaborated in both ensemble and chamber events, taking him from Orlando, Florida to Acqui Terme, Italy where he served as a UCF student representative at the 2021 InterHarmony International Music Festival. Additional collaborations have included those with the UCF chamber orchestra and the UCF Knights Trumpet Ensemble. He has also accompanied both undergraduate and graduate students for composition recitals and performance competitions, participating as an accompanist in the 2021 UCF Concerto/Aria Competition. Additional experiences have included accompanying for a masterclass taught by acclaimed violinist Gil Shaham and accompanying for the 2022 National Young Composers Challenge Composium for UCF Celebrates the Arts in Orlando, Florida. Recent collaborations have included accompanying for the 2023 Brimhall Cello Competition, the 2023 and 2024 Southwest Symphony Young Artist Competition and as a jury member for the Fall 2022 Sterling Scholar Scholarship awards.
Prof. Bogers also completed an M.A. thesis in addition to his senior recital, surveying the conceptualization of the musical adaptation of the 1961 Broadway production of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. His interests in musicology and ethnomusicology have resulted in studies including the development of keyboard mechanisms in Medieval and Renaissance-era Europe and critical reactions to the early operas of Richard Strauss. He has additionally presented on his research projects, most notably his 2019 undergraduate thesis, Music and the Presidency: How Campaign Songs Sold the Image of Presidential Candidates at the University of California, Davis.
