Background & Offerings

Juilliard-trained pianist Allegra Chapman is an omnivorous soloist and chamber musician, adventurous curator, and passionate educator. She is a member of the award-winning Delphi Trio with violinist Liana Bérubé and cellist Tanya Tomkins, and co-founder of the voice and piano duo Chordless with soprano Sara LeMesh. As a presenter, Allegra is the founding co-artistic director and executive director of the critically acclaimed festival Bard Music West, a San Francisco-based branch of the Bard Music Festival. Allegra received her Master of Music from The Juilliard School and graduated in the inaugural class of the Bard College Conservatory of Music with degrees in history and piano performance. She studied primarily with Jeremy Denk, Seymour Lipkin, Sharon Mann, Julian Martin, John McCarthy, and Peter Serkin.

Allegra takes a holistic approach to teaching guided by her studies of Alexander Technique and Body Mapping, and her unique blend of curatorial and performance experience. With the goal of enabling each student to discover their freest expressive capabilities, she incorporates the historical and theoretical sides of music with practical technical understanding and body-awareness. As a dedicated teacher of piano and chamber music, Allegra enjoys working equally with adult students and advanced young pianists and ensembles. She maintains a private piano studio in San Francisco and is currently on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College. She coached previously at California Music Preparatory Academy and MTSY Studio in Xi’an China. She has also taught masterclasses in Xi'an, at San Francisco State University, and St. Mary's College and adjudicated various competitions including the Contemporary Music Festival of CAPMT, the California affiliate of Music Teachers National Association. Her students have won many awards including the Grand Prize at the U.S. Open Music Competition, and top prizes in the Great Composers Competition and Music Teachers' Association of California VOCE competition state finals.