Marcus Ostermiller

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“My family lived across the street from a piano teacher who inspired me with a deep love for playing the piano which intensified throughout childhood. When I was fifteen my father rewarded my dedication by contributing half the cost toward a grand piano so long as I agreed to raise the other half by teaching piano lessons. My father's negotiation taught me about the tremendous rewards associated with hard work.”

  • Program: 2009 Graduate Scholarship Recipient
  • Resides: New York, NY
  • Hometown: Denver, Colorado
  • Age: 27

Biography

PROFILE: Marcus Ostermiller’s career goals have come full circle. At an early age, thanks to a wonderful piano teacher in his Denver neighborhood, he learned how to play and love the piano. He was a natural, and he performed beautifully. It was crystal clear to Marcus that music and the piano would be his life. That is until his freshman year of college when a piano professor shocked him by telling him he “was not fit for a career in music.” Marcus was understandably devastated. He changed majors, then transferred to another college, but fate intervened a few years later and he returned to piano “as my true academic and artistic passion.” Fate, in the case of Marcus Ostermiller, came in the form of an audio message on his computer and it came care of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in E, Opus 109. While attending the University of Oxford as part of his study abroad experience he was composing an essay on his laptop when Ludwig van Beethoven’s famous composition started playing. “Reminded of my deep love for the piece, I suddenly realized in somewhat devastation that my life was incomplete without music.” The computer reminder was all the encouragement Marcus needed to return to the musical magic he loved to make. Since that day in England, Marcus has studied under various famed instructors in Colorado, New York, and England. It’s now on to New York University in Manhattan.

INSPIRATION: There are two piano instructors that Marcus is particularly indebted to: Larry Graham who he studied with intermittently after high school and the other, Alice Rybak, his piano professor at the University of Denver. 

ASPIRATION: He hopes the Master of Music degree that he will attain at NYU will equip him with valuable tools and connections necessary to make a significant impact within the field of music. As far as his future in music, Marcus wants to do it all. He wants to work both as a soloist and as a collaborative pianist in any and all performance settings “that allow me to share great music with the public.” He’s already been a piano instructor for many years, and he’d like to continue down that road. 

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: There’s a young piano student in Denver that Marcus began teaching three years ago. The young boy, Marcus said, was encumbered by a lack of physical coordination, excessive tension, and low self-confidence. Together as a student-teacher team, “we’ve accomplished more than I ever imagined possible.”  After three years of hard work, the student overcame the physical challenges that held him back and now plays the piano with relative ease. Marcus talked with pride about his student who, “learned to be patient with himself and never give up on any pursuit for which he is passionate, regardless of difficulty.”

ACCOLADES: Marcus was a visiting student at the University of Oxford, won first place in the Colorado State Federation Piano Competition, and is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda Honor Society.

INTERESTING FACT: The late, great, Bobby Darin would be proud of this Graduate Scholar, if only for a stunt three-year-old Marcus pulled during a family vacation on Lake Powell. “An early sign of my impulsive nature: I stripped off my life jacket and, exclaiming "Splish splash, I was takin' a bath!" plunged off the side of a house boat into the lake. Thanks to a family friend who was within arms reach when I began to sink, this kamikaze child is still alive and kicking.”

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