School of Music Launches New Master's Degree in Collaborative Piano

ATLANTA - The Georgia State University School of Music is launching a new Master of Music in Collaborative Piano, a two-year program that will welcome its first cohort in spring 2027. Taylor Flowers, who joined the faculty this fall as lecturer in collaborative piano, will lead it.

The term itself is often misunderstood, and Flowers is quick to draw the distinction.

"A collaborative pianist is a musical partner to a singer or instrumentalist who provides a clear musical point of view, like a second protagonist in a novel," Flowers said.

It is also a working career. Collaborative pianists build specialized paths as vocal coaches in opera, in chamber music, in orchestral and choral settings, and on the solo concert stage.

"Dr. Taylor Flowers brings a wealth of collaborative piano and vocal coaching skill and experience to Georgia State," said Julia Bullard, director of the School of Music. "Under his leadership, we are launching our new master's degree in collaborative piano, which will give students the opportunity for applied study as well as learning the art of ensemble playing with ample hands-on experience and individualized coaching with Dr. Flowers."

Flowers comes to Georgia State from Hillsdale College, where he spent four years teaching applied piano and chamber music while serving concurrently as a vocal coach at the University of Michigan. He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in Collaborative Piano at Michigan under Martin Katz, performs internationally across Europe and South America and specializes in 20th-century vocal literature and contemporary operatic repertoire. In 2026 he received the George Shirley Collaborative Pianist Award, recognizing six years of work with the George Shirley Vocal Competition and a career-long commitment to the repertoire of the African diaspora.

His coaching credentials map closely to the careers his students will pursue. Flowers has completed a residency at the Taos Opera Institute, served as an Opera Coaching Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and coached and performed for Detroit Opera's professional outreach work.

Atlanta as a Classroom

For Flowers, the city is inseparable from the program.

"Atlanta is nearly unparalleled in its opportunities for students to both professionally engage and give back to the community," he said.

He pointed to the caliber of performance students can see here, a formative part of his own training, and to the connections faculty maintain with professional companies.

"The other benefit to GSU students is how well connected the professors are to regional opera companies and orchestras, creating a clear pipeline to employment for students."

External graduate assistantships extend that reach, placing students in paid work across metro Atlanta arts organizations while they study.

Inside the program

The 36-credit degree centers on private study of the collaborative repertoire with Flowers, coursework in solo art song, operatic and chamber music literature, and training in vocal coaching and collaborative piano pedagogy. Students study lyric diction in the primary languages of opera and art song, and gain experience coaching graduate-level singers who are destined for the opera stage.

They will learn how to rehearse, how to communicate well with their partners, how to lead professional lives as collaborators and how to live on the cutting edge of the music industry.

Two graduate recitals anchor the degree, and students perform regularly through performance laboratory, school-wide student showcases and public recitals. Graduates also complete a comprehensive examination and a digital portfolio designed to build practical career skills, from audition and interview preparation to self-promotion and professional communication.

What Flowers wants students to carry out with them is a particular kind of musical instinct.

"I would like my students to be able to listen empathetically to their partners, to be able to lead their partners and to discover what it feels like to balance both strategies against one another," he said.

He remembers the moment that instinct clicked for him as a student.

"I also remember performing the Franck Sonata my senior year of college and feeling like I was flying in the fourth movement," he said. "A feeling I had never had playing solo music."

How to Apply

Admission is by audition. Pre-screening videos will be reviewed starting Dec. 1, and students will be invited to audition live at Georgia State with collaborative partners provided by the school.

Applicants should be prepared to demonstrate sight-reading skills, language skills where present and communication skills in the form of an in-person interview with the faculty. A cumulative undergraduate grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 is required.

Prospective students can learn more and begin an application at app.getacceptd.com/gsu.

About the Georgia State University School of Music

The School of Music in the College of the Arts at Georgia State University offers undergraduate and graduate degrees across performance, music education, jazz studies, composition and music industry. Located in the heart of downtown Atlanta, the school connects students to one of the most active music cities in the country.