A recent summa cum laude graduate of the University of Ottawa Baccalaureate in piano performance, Mary Hadwen Carter is now a pianist and active teacher managing her private studio, Méloidia Piano in Montréal. A main source of joy is imparting the love of music to students and watching each one advance and develop their own musical interests and style. The magic of education is that it can involve any discipline, but what sets music apart is its ability to reach people of all ages, cultures, and languages.

She still remembers one of the earliest moments that hooked her on teaching music – watching a little girl light-up with excitement while learning the first few notes of twinkle, twinkle little star on the piano. The reward of seeing that enthusiastic sparkle of understanding was incomparable to anything else. Since then, Mary has enjoyed teaching for over seven years and hopes to continue as long as her fingers can play.

She has performed as a soloist and in a variety of chamber ensembles at the University of Ottawa in recitals and masterclasses; she attended and performed at the Waterloo Music Festival Quartetfest participating in masterclasses as a chamber musician with Angela Park, Leopoldo Erice, Rachel Mercer and the Penderecki String Quartet. She has preformed for a variety of audiences over the past years in recital-halls, churches, senior and long-term care residences in Ottawa, Montreal and Des Moines, Iowa.

In her personal time, Mary is an avid hiker, cyclist, and birder; one of her favourite pastimes is exploring the sounds of music in nature – be it a black-throated blue warbler’s buzzy trilling, the steady rhythm of rushing water in the St-Lawrence or the nearby punctuated chatter of a chipmunk.