Cascade School of Music is proud to be adding a very accomplished pianist and piano teacher to its faculty, April Lane. April holds a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance and Accompanying  from the University of Northern Colorado, and also pursued doctoral studies at the University of Texas Austin and the University of Illinois. April was a member of the music faculty at the University of Northern Colorado and at Aims Community College in Colorado where she developed and taught the piano program.

April moved to Montana in 2003, where she joined the faculty of North Valley Music School, the only non-profit community music school in the state. She quickly built a studio the of 50+ students ranging in age and ability, and had a full schedule of students early morning before school, after school, and on weekends.

Ms. Lane maintains an active concert schedule as soloist and collaborative pianist. She has been featured as soloist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Greeley Chamber Orchestra, and will be featured this fall with the Colorado Springs Symphony. She serves as one of the staff accompanists for

the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra Young Artists International Competition, and sits as pianist with the Glacier Symphony Orchestra in Kalispell, Montana. She is an annual featured artist at Festival Amadeus in Whitefish, Montana.

Recent performances include collaborations with internationally acclaimed artists Ricardo Herrera (University of Illinois), American cellist Stephen Framil(Philadelphia), David Halen (University of Michigan), cellist Scott Kluksdahl (University of Florida),violinist Jennifer Frautschi (New York) and clarinetist Oskar Espina-Ruiz (Spain).

Aside from being an active performer, April loves teaching the piano. She is thrilled to be joining the faculty at the Cascade School of Music, and hopes to quickly become active in the musical life in Central Oregon. In addition to many years teaching the traditional classical repertoire, April is certified as a Suzuki instructor for those families who are interested in the method. Her students in Montana have gone on to win top honors at district and state music festivals, and several are now pursuing degrees in music at top universities. April's philosophy of teaching is that learning music should be enjoyable, active, driven by curiosity with an emphasis on self-expression.