Dr. Dario Martin to join the NATS 2024 Intern Program
Distinguished Music Achievement:
Dr. Dario Martin, a member of our music faculty, has been invited to participate in the NATS 2024 Intern Program in Tallahassee, Florida, an immersive experience for early-career members pairing them with master teachers, where he will represent the Alaska NATS chapter and the UAF Department of Music.
One of our music faculty, Dr. Dario Martin has been recently invited to join the NATS 2024 Intern Program in Tallahassee, Florida next summer. Founded in 1944, the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) is the largest organization of voice teachers in the world. The NATS Intern Program is an innovative and immersive experience that seeks to pair expert and recognized master teachers with early-career members of NATS. Twelve vocalists and four collaborative pianists from all over the United States are invited every summer to participate in this program.
Collaborative piano interns participate in mentored coaching hours, coach students under the supervision of the collaborative piano master teacher, and accompany lessons. All interns perform in master classes, participate in educational sessions, and meet to discuss their daily lessons and coachings with their master teacher. Dr. Martin is honored to be representing the Alaska NATS chapter and the UAF Department of Music.
About NATS
The NATS Intern Program offers an exceptional training experience to improve the teaching skills of interns and foster independent relationships necessary for providing the best instruction. This format encourages a dynamic exchange of ideas and techniques, with the goal of improving the studio teaching skills of voice interns and the coaching skills of collaborative piano interns.
About Dr. Dario Martin
A native of Havana, Cuba, Dario Martin is a versatile pianist with an international career in solo performance, chamber music, and collaborative piano. He has won first prizes in international piano competitions in Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, and the United States. Notably, he won the Concerto Competition at Indiana University in 2018, performing Ligeti’s Piano Concerto as a soloist. Other awards include First Prize in the Jose Jacinto Cuevas Yamaha Piano International Competition in Mexico and First Prize in the National Piano Competition UNEAC in Havana, Cuba. He joined the music faculty at the University of Alaska - Fairbanks in 2023. At UAF he teaches Functional Piano and Music Fundamentals, in addition to his duties as Collaborative Pianist for the Music Department. He collaborates with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra, the Choir of the North, students, faculty and guest artists at UAF.
Dr. Martin’s active performance career has brought him to concert halls in Austria, Costa Rica, Cuba, England, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Panama, Spain, and the United States. He has played as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, the Havana Chamber Orchestra and the Yucatan Symphony Orchestra among others. His recent presentations include solo recitals at the University of Houston, the San Diego Museum of Art, Mississippi’s FestivalSouth, as well as collaborative work at the Austrian American Mozart Academy in Salzburg.
Dr. Martin finished his doctoral studies in Piano Literature and Performance at Indiana University-Bloomington in the studio of Arnaldo Cohen, with minors in Collaborative Piano and Music Education. Previous studies include a master’s degree and Performer’s Diploma at Southern Methodist University, with renowned artist Joaquin Achucarro, in addition to his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance earned at the Instituto Superior de Arte of Havana in 2011.
Dr. Martin is also a dedicated pedagogue. He began teaching piano back in Cuba at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory of Havana from 2011 to 2013. In Dallas, he taught at the RBR Muzik School, in addition to keeping an engaged private studio. At Indiana University he taught group piano class and individual lessons for three years. In recent years, he has increasingly performed and taught online, using technology as a tool to engage students and new audiences. Dr. Martin worked as a Collaborative Pianist at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg from 2020 to 2023.
His first CD, El Album de la Ciudad Celeste, was released in Cuba in 2011 and received the Cubadisco Award to the Best Classical Solo Album. Other recordings include the CD Netzaj, alongside trumpet player Fadev Sanjudo, and Up into the silence with singer Diana Fuentes. His second solo album, Juegos de Agua, was recorded by FT Music in Mexico. He is supported by the Joaquin Achucarro Foundation, which has named him one of its legacy pianists.