Workshop: Todd Van Kekerix – What’s Pop Got to Do With It?

Teacher Workshop: What’s Pop Got to Do with It?
Building Piano Skills with Today’s Music

Cohosted with the Faber Piano Institute

Join us for a workshop with Todd Van Kekerix on incorporating pop music into piano lessons. Come ready for practical ideas, musical examples, and new ways to help students play the music they love while continuing to build strong piano skills.

About the Workshop

Young students are passionate about pop music—it’s the soundtrack of their lives, filling their car rides, favorite shows, social media feeds, and time with friends. For piano teachers, that creates a wonderful opportunity to connect with students through music they already know and love. Incorporating pop music into lessons can boost enthusiasm, strengthen motivation, and even earn us a little street credibility along the way.

Piano teachers have actually been using familiar music to teach musical skills for well over a century. Today, that idea may be more relevant than ever. When students recognize the music they are playing and feel personally connected to it, we have an immediate opening for teaching rhythm, harmony, technique, listening, creativity, and musicianship.

Of course, pop music moves quickly, and sometimes we need to strike while the iron is hot. This workshop will offer practical strategies for quickly interpreting lead sheets and chord charts, identifying the best teaching opportunities within a song, developing good technique through pop repertoire, and helping students tackle those tricky syncopated rhythms.

We’ll also look at how popular musicians learn outside of traditional lessons and consider ways we can borrow from those informal learning practices in our own teaching. Come ready for practical ideas, musical examples, and new ways to help students play the music they love while continuing to build strong piano skills.

About the Presenter

Dr. Todd Van Kekerix is expanding what it means to be a pianist in the 21st century. As Associate Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of Houston, he leads one of the country’s most forward-thinking piano pedagogy programs, where his teaching emphasizes creativity, versatility, group piano, popular music, and preparing pianists for the evolving demands of the profession.

He also serves as Artist-in-Residence at Houston Methodist Hospital’s Center for Performing Arts Medicine, performing weekly at patients’ bedsides and leading research exploring music-making, nurse burnout, caregiver wellness, and the role musicians can play in healthcare settings. His research on group keyboard music-making and mood states has been published in Psychology of Music and presented at national and international conferences.

An active performer, clinician, and lecturer, Van Kekerix has appeared throughout the United States, China, and Canada. His work frequently explores the intersections of piano pedagogy, popular music, improvisation, wellness, and innovative approaches to keyboard instruction. In 2025, he premiered a commissioned The Dolly Parton Suite at the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy. He is also active in state and national piano pedagogy organizations and is a frequent presenter for teachers and collegiate audiences.

Outside his professional endeavors, Van Kekerix enjoys downhill skiing, traveling, and exploring new gastronomic delights.