Chad Spears

Chad Spears, a native of Boise, ID, has performed across the US, with additional appearances in Canada and Mexico. A  winner of numerous young artist competitions, he made his orchestral debut at the age of eighteen playing Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor with the Treasure Valley Youth Symphony. Since then he has been featured with the Washington-Idaho Symphony and the Coeur d'Alene Symphony as the soloist for Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with the Spokane Symphony for Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major and with the University of Idaho Orchestra performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Chad earned his Doctor of Music Degree in Piano Performance at Florida State University under the tutelage of Dr. Read Gainsford.
 

A highly sought-after collaborative pianist, Chad has been invited to be a collaborative pianist for Narnia Festival's International Vocal Arts Program this summer in Narni, Italy. He served as a collaborative pianist for the Summer 2021 Narnia Festival International Vocal Arts Program and had the opportunity to work with renowned voice teachers Andrea DelGiudice (New York City), Michele Detwiler (Boise, ID), and Maya Hoover (University of Hawai'i at Mānoa). He also had the privilege of working with NYC-based composer Jake Landau, whose opera Pietà was premiered at the Summer 2021 Narnia Festival. In Summer 2015, Chad was invited to perform at the Encuentro Internacional de Flauta y Piccolo at the Escuela Superior de Música y Danza in Monterrey, Mexico, where he played in several recitals with the festival’s students and faculty members. He has also been a guest artist in Toronto, Canada a number of times, performing with flutist Alheli Pimienta and collaborating with composer Adam Sherkin. Chad's chamber music repertoire is extensive and covers a range of styles from the Bach flute and keyboard sonatas to César Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano and Olivier Messiaen's Quatour pour la fin du Temps. He is a proponent of new music, having performed works by the Japanese-American composer Hiroya Miura, Ukrainian composer Oleg Bezborodko and Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, among others.

 

A passionate teacher, Chad is dedicated to inspiring the next generation of musicians. He has served as a group piano instructor at Florida State University and the University of North Florida, and has maintained active piano studios in Moscow, ID, and Tallahassee, FL. Chad currently serves as an accompanist and adjunct instructor of class piano for Boise State University’s Department of Music. He works with several Boise State choral ensembles, voice students, and on occasion with the Symphonic Winds and Symphony Orchestra. He is the pianist for the Boise-based group Tree City  Chamber Players and also collaborates with local area school choirs, Alley Repertory Theater, and Opera Idaho.