Biography

Bridget Bem earned a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Texas at Austin where she studied with Dr. Betty Mallard and Dr. William Race. She was awarded a University Fellowship in the academic year 1996-97. Before embarking on the doctoral program Bem was a student of Baylor University Artist-in-Residence, Krassimira Jordan.

Prior to and during her doctoral studies Dr. Bem competed in several international piano competitions including the Gina Bachauer, in 1994, and the Cleveland International in 1997. She won Second Prize in the 1992 New Orleans International Piano Competition and Second Prize in the 1995 Louise D. McMahon International Piano Competition.

Dr. Bem has recorded solo piano music of Dr. Stephen Dankner on the Centaur and Albany labels. Bem gave the premiere of Dankner's Piano Sonata (1992) in New Orleans in 1994. She was the winner of the Joanna Hodges/Gina Bachauer Reciprocal Recital award and has performed in the Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival (Salt Lake City, Utah) and the Rolfs Concert Series (Pensacola, Florida). She has also appeared in the Sergei Rachmaninoff Memorial Recital Series in Dallas, Texas.

Throughout her performing career Dr. Bem has been teaching piano independently since 1987. She held a position as a teaching assistant at UT-Austin from 1988-90. She was on the faculty at the Coppell Conservatory from 2002-2003.