Deborah Svedman (USA)

Deborah Svedman loves the piano. She earned a degree in Piano Performance and has a deep knowledge of classical music, especially piano repertoire and pianists, but became a high school math teacher. She won several state and national teaching awards, including the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching. She was named an Exemplary Teacher by the U.S. Department of Education and was the first National Board Certified Teacher in El Paso, Texas. Deborah’s leadership skills were developed by being a math department chair, a math consultant, a bilingual education instructor at the University of Texas at El Paso, and the Coordinator for the National Board Resource Center in El Paso. 

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Ms. Svedman spent six years volunteering for a piano festival and competition in Colorado, where she was responsible for organizing and scheduling several rounds of competition plus festival events such as masterclasses, presentations, and recitals, website maintenance, creating event emails, monitoring Acceptd applications, corresponding with competitors, chauffeuring guest artists from airports to hotels, creating festival calendars of events and minute-by-minute, and often simultaneous, competition schedules, fielding questions from applicants, and emceeing the competitions. Program notes for concerts, piano repertoire listings in correct form, artist biographies, and promotional materials are other duties she took to task.

In addition to being the Executive Director of the Borderland Chopin Internation Piano Competition and Festival, Ms. Svedman is the current Chair of the Board of Directors for the Lewisville Lake Symphony in Lewisville, Texas. Her duties there include coordinating their two annual music competitions and writing program notes for the symphony concerts. Ms. Svedman has a collection of keyboards in her home, including an 1873 Steinway Monitor Grand, an 1828 Thomas Gibson pianoforte, a 1903 Hamilton Cabinet Grand, plus an 1892 Chicago Champion pump organ.