Jestin Pieper hails from the small community of Fond du Lac Wisconsin. He began studying music at the age of 12, and had his debut concerto performance at the age of 15 performing Beethoven’s first piano concerto.  He attended Lawrence University and graduated Magna cum Laude with a Bachelor of Music in piano performance. During his undergraduate years, Jestin was awarded the Lawrence Accompanying Fellowship, The Margret Daniels Award for keyboard performance, and was the first freshman to win the Lawrence concerto competition. Dmitri Novgorodsky and Catherine Kaustky were his principle teachers at Lawrence.  He also had the privilege to attend the Aspen Music Festival and School during the summers of 2005-2007 and 2009 where he studied with Herbert Stessin and Anton Nel. He also participated in several spotlight recitals and master classes. Jestin is currently working toward his MM in piano performance at UT Austin Butler School of music where he is studying with Anton Nel. 

Jestin’s teaching experience started as a student teacher through the Lawrence Academy of Music, and continued throughout his time at Lawrence.  Since moving to Austin, he has taught privately, through the Butler School of Music’s Piano project and the 201 NM program.  On June 19th Jestin will give a presentation at the 97th Annual TMTA convention in Arlington TX, on “The Neglected Art of Transcribing,” where he will talk about the importance of transcriptions in music education.  Jestin’s teaching philosophy asserts that every individual has the capacity to achieve a degree of musical proficiency and excellence through a balance of a dedicated work ethic, technical and intellectual understanding of the art, and of course enjoying the benefits of playing music.