MUNCIE, Ind. -- Ball State University piano professor and international performer Robert Palmer has been named the Indiana Music Teachers Association’s 1998-99 Teacher of the Year.

Palmer is the first Ball State faculty member to earn the statewide award. He was honored at the IMTA’s recent state convention at the Wyndham Gardens Hotel in Indianapolis.

Colleagues praised Palmer for his high teaching standards, expansive knowledge of keyboard literature, willingness to share his skills with the community and "incredible ability to motivate and inspire everyone he works with."

They called him a caring and personable teacher who communicates his art on all levels, corrects technical problems immediately, brings a historical perspective to his teaching and is perceptive in his literature choices for individual students.

Former student Seth Beckman, chair of Bemidji (Minn.) State University’s Department of Music, said studying with Palmer "has proven to be the best professional decision I have ever made."

"Dr. Palmer taught me to understand the depth of commitment needed to succeed as a musician and educator in our highly competitive field," Beckman told the IMTA. "I learned from him the importance of personal responsibility and its correlation to the realization of both short- and long-term goals."

Palmer not only taught Beckman how to practice and perform well, but he also instilled confidence and helped him understand the value of amiable approaches to communication. Palmer reinforced his teaching by example and performance, Beckman said.

"Throughout my studies at Ball State, Dr. Palmer demonstrated a consistent and all-encompassing concern for my scholastic well-being," he said.

Palmer joined the Ball State School of Music faculty in 1986 and received the first College of Fine Arts Dean’s Teaching Award in 1993. His performance awards have included prizes in the Joanna Hodges Piano Competition and the U.S. Information Agency National Piano Competition, and his students have frequently won prizes in international and national competitions.

Palmer is in demand as a clinician and as an adjudicator for state and division competitions. He has served on the IMTA board as chair of Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Collegiate Artist and Chamber Music Competitions for several years.

In recent years he has presented well-received workshops on intermediate piano literature to IMTA local associations in Muncie, Indianapolis, Lafayette and South Bend.

His performing career has spanned three continents, with solo and orchestral appearances throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He has performed in more than 25 states since his Carnegie Hall debut in 1979.

Palmer has toured the Far East five times, performing and teaching in major centers such as Osaka, Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo. He will travel to China in November to perform with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and at Shanghai Teachers University.

His numerous radio and television broadcasts have included National Public Radio and public television in the United States, plus Spanish Galicia Radio, Taiwanese and Korean radio and Japanese television.

Palmer has premiered several new works, including a James Grant piano concerto, and is on the international roster of Steinway artists. He has degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, the University of Minnesota and St. John’s University.

(NOTE TO EDITORS: Robert Palmer can be reached at (765) 285-5420 or e-mail: rpalmer@bsu.edu.)