2022 - 2023 AAPF Piano Competition Judges

Scott Camp - Virtual Judge 

Scott Camp is a life-long student, refining a piano teaching approach that combines the latest advances in sports and music. After receiving BA, BM, and MM degrees (University of Tennessee, New England Conservatory of Music, University of Iowa) and 10 years of business management, Scott taught a traditional range of piano students in Asheville from 2003-2015. During this time, under the influence of AAPF instructors, Scott created piano materials which evolved into a comprehensive library of top-selling and award-winning titles on sheetmusicplus.com. Scott's piano publications are ground-breaking with (1) presentation of all fingering, and (2) page layouts that clarify, rather than obfuscate, the 2, 4, 8, and 16 bar structure of music. Scott also patented his notation system for hand positions which indicates, for the first time, expansions to an octave and beyond.

Steven Graff - Virtual Judge

Since his concerto debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 15, Steinway Artist Steven Graff has maintained an active performing and teaching career. Major concert venues include Carnegie, Merkin and Alice Tully Halls, and tours of Norway and Japan, as well as an appearance with the NY Philharmonic Education sponsored Chamber series. Concerto performances include a tour of China playing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and the world premiere of John Carbon’s piano concerto. Dr. Graff has recordings on Centaur, Capstone, Zimbel and Convivium with Naxos worldwide distribution. Graff has given lecture-recitals and master classes at the Gina Bachauer, Bar Harbor, and Aloha International Piano Festivals, MTNA and numerous colleges. Dr. Graff is a full-time professor at Converse University’s Petrie School of Music, having previously taught at Hunter College, Macaulay Honors College and the CUNY Graduate Center. BM and MM, The Juilliard School, DMA, CUNY Graduate Center.

Erica Pauly - Virtual Judge

Erica Pauly has performed extensively throughout the Carolinas as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral and collaborative pianist. She has worked with orchestras in Hendersonville, Brevard, Spartanburg and Greenville, and has performed with many local musicians and venues including Converse University and the Spartanburg Repertory Opera. Ms. Pauly is an active member and a past Dean of the American Guild of Organists, Spartanburg Chapter. She enjoys working as a guest organist for many local churches.

Ms. Pauly has been teaching piano since 1993. She enjoys helping her students achieve basic musicianship skills as well as technical and artistic mastery, while nurturing their unique creativity and imagination. Ms. Pauly is an acclaimed adjudicator, and in recent years, has served on the judging panel for the Charlotte Symphony Young Artist Competition, Steinway Junior Piano Competition, and other area competitions.

Erica Pauly holds a Master of Music degree in Piano Pedagogy and Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Converse College. She works as an adjunct instructor at the Petrie School of Music and Lawson Academy at Converse University in Spartanburg, SC.

Dr. Melanie Foster Taylor - Virtual Judge

Dr. Melanie Foster Taylor holds degrees in Piano Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Marshall University, and the Doctor of Music in Piano Pedagogy and Literature from Indiana University. Her teachers include John Perry, Alfonso Montecino, Kenneth Marchant and Michel Béroff. Her recital was broadcast on the National Public Radio “Music from Oberlin” series. She was the youngest winner in both the amateur and professional divisions of the Young Artist Competition of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra.

Andrew Adams - In-Person Judge

Andrew Adams is Director of the School of Music and Professor of Piano at Western Carolina University. He earned the BM in Piano from the Kansas City Conservatory of Music and the MM in Vocal Coaching and Accompanying from the University of Illinois. He completed his DMA in Piano Performance at the University of Colorado. Adams served as Vocal Coach and Director of Collaborative Piano at Iowa State University from 2003 to 2006. He was a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Singing, the official publication of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, for twelve years. He has published articles and reviews in Piano Professional (England), The American Music Teacher, The Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music, The Journal of Singing, and the North Carolina Music Educator. Recently, he served as editor for the Resource Handbook for Academic Deans to be published by the Johns Hopkins University Press in January 2023.

Tate Addis - In-Person Judge

Tate Addis currently serves as Organist at First Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina and as Accompanist and Assistant Director for the Asheville Symphony Chorus. His recent recital appearances have taken him to Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, and Philadelphia and he has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Kansas City, New Haven, Omaha, and Wichita. As a collaborative pianist, he has performed with violinists Daniel Hope and Benny Kim, tenor Vinson Cole, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Tate holds piano performance degrees from Wichita State University and the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance and organ performance degrees from Yale University and Oberlin Conservatory. His major teachers were Andrew Trechak and Robert Weirich and he has participated in masterclasses with Hung-Kuan Chen, Leon Fleisher, Stephen Hough, and Jerome Lowenthal.

Elizabeth Child- In-Person Judge

Elizabeth Child holds a doctorate in piano performance from The Juilliard School, and currently maintains a private studio in Tryon NC after a long teaching and performing career in New York.

Her orchestral appearances include the Juilliard Orchestra at Lincoln Center, the summer festival orchestras of Interlochen and Brevard, and the symphonies of Columbus GA and Spartanburg SC. As first prize winner of the Twelfth Artists International Auditions, she was the featured soloist in the PBS television special “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”— an intimate portrait of a young artist preparing for her professional debut. Of her Weill Recital Hall concert, Will Crutchfield of The New York Times said “…one always sensed that something was happening in her playing, and that made it easy to enjoy.”

A winner in the New York Piano Teachers Congress and the Society of American Musicians competitions, Child has performed as soloist and chamber musician in the United States and Taiwan. She holds a master’s degree in performance from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in performance from Converse College. Her teachers include Josef Raieff, Dmitry Paperno, Louis Nagel, Henry Rauch and Dorothy Taubman.

Dr. Leonidas Lagrimas - In-Person Judge

Dr. Leonidas Lagrimas serves as Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at Western Carolina University. His duties include coordinating the Class Piano program and teaching Applied Piano. His performance experience includes multiple collaborative piano appearances at Carnegie Hall, recent solo and collaborative guest artist recitals at UNC-Charlotte, University of North Florida, SUNY-Fredonia, Valdosta State University (GA), Florida College, Livingston College (NC), Wesleyan College (GA), University of Tennessee-Southern (TN), and numerous appearances as a choral and church accompanist throughout the East Coast. Active as a musical theatre accompanist/keyboardist, music director, vocal coach and conductor, his recent regional credits include Little Shop of Horrors for Starring Buffalo! at Shea's 710 Theatre (Buffalo, NY), Rock of Ages and 9 to 5: The Musical for Theatre Tallahassee, In the Heights and American Idiot for New Stage Theatreworks, and numerous community, collegiate, and high school mainstage productions.

Dr. Lagrimas holds National Certification (NCTM) in piano from MTNA, and a Ph.D. in Music Education and Piano Pedagogy from Florida State University. His previous full-time faculty appointments include SUNY-Fredonia and Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, and prior to his doctoral studies he served as a music teacher in the New York City public schools for ten years.