Timothy Hester
Professor of Piano
Director of Keyboard Collaborative Arts
phone:  713 - 743-3309
email:  thester@ uh.edu
office: MSM 227

Please go to Rehersalnet and enter or update your contact data, using cougar118 (with no spaces) as the school ID if you are a new student. It is your responsibility to do this immediately. It should take less than five minutes to do this. Updated schedules are easily managed on the Rehearsalnet Scheduling system; so if you are not sure of your complete schedule, enter whatever you can immediately and update it later.

Be sure to notify me of all changes in your schedule at any point in the semester. It is not necessary to re-create a new account at the beginning of each semester—just keep the first one you make all the way through your studies here. At the end of every semester, schedule information and special request boxes will be cleared, but contact data will remain along with user names & passwords.

On your contact data page, you will notice a box for Special Requests. Please use this if you have any specific information to communicate. For example: Preferences concerning specific pianists, repertoire information, recital dates, or, in the case of pianists, whether you wish to accompany for vocalists and/or instrumentalists and any specific teachers that you would particularly enjoy working with. I cannot always accommodate your requests, but will try my best….Please be clear in understanding that I must approve all requests of pianists who are involved in Rehearsalnet who have required accompanying duties. Outside Professional Accompanists can be dealt with outside of this system.

If you are a vocalist or instrumentalist and are planning a performance or jury or lesson time, you must check with your pianist to make sure of their availability ahead of time. This will help to avoid conflicts.

If a student accompanist is being used for a vocal jury, final jury repertoire decisions must be made a month prior to the jury examinations. If this deadline is not met, I will release the accompanist from the assignment and recommend contacting an outside professional accompanist.

Accompanists are not required to travel to faculty members’ homes for lessons.

Although Rehearsalnet will notify pianists of their assignments, the instrumentalist or vocalist must make initial contact within five days of the assignment to arrange transfer of music, rehearsal times and confirmation of lesson attendance. If contact is not made immediately (within five days of the initial assignment), the pianists will be released from the assignment. It is also their responsibility to contact the accompanists in advance if the need for cancellation should arise. If the accompanists cannot be reached, then they can leave a message with me and I will contact the pianist.

Professionalism and common courtesy are necessary common threads that must prevail when instrumentalists or vocalists are working with pianists. If you are lucky enough to work with one of our Staff Accompanists, it is imperative that you treat these people with the same degree of respect and consideration that you would to a faculty member. If I become aware of a situation where disrespect occurs, I will release the pianist from the assignment.

When a pianist is assigned, this essentially means 15 hours spread out over the semester. This number also includes rehearsal time. You may use this time in any way you want. Because it usually takes a couple of weeks at the beginning of every semester before assignments are in finalized, unused hours can be added toward the latter part of the semester, but not overly lop-sided toward jury week because the student accompanists have their own solo juries to prepare. The jury performance is at no charge. However, if more rehearsal time is necessary, then the accompanist should be paid no less than $15 per hour for additional time, assuming the accompanist has the extra time to work. Also, if you are performing a recital, the recital fee should be between $125 and $250, depending upon whether it is a half-recital or full program (these figures includes one dress rehearsal). There is no fee necessary when a student accompanist is used for the TVR series of vocal recitals; however, a fee of approximately $35-50 should be paid to a student accompanist when performing on the Regular Tuesday recital series or studio recital. In the event of a school concerto competition, the suggested rate for accompanists who are assigned to play through the entire semester should be approximately $40-50; however, if the soloist hires someone other than the assigned pianist, such as a staff accompanist or faculty member, then the reasonable rate of $60-80 would is appropriate. All recordings, whether it be for an outside contest or audition, are considered an outside event and should be paid in a similar hourly rate. Any recordings made during studio classes, lessons or rehearsals are to be considered outside the normal parameters of the accompanying responsibilities and should be paid by the student. Timely payment is expected.

Your teacher must hear you with your pianist at least 4 times prior to any pre-recital jury or regular jury examination. If I am notified that this is not done, the pianist will be released from the assignment. Exceptions to this policy are possible only with my approval, in advance. One of the strengths of our program is that students are consistently guided in their mutual collaborative experience by expert faculty. Without proper guidance, the system fails. If your teacher prefers that you only have minimal rehearsals coupled with only a couple of lessons with you and your pianist toward the end of the semester, then you should plan not to use this system. At the beginning of the semester, I will only commit school accompanying budget support to help those who are willing to cooperate throughout the semester by giving positive input and direction to the musical collaboration between the instrumentalist or vocalist and their accompanist.

I would appreciate your consistent input regarding your experience in working together, changing needs, and suggestions or comments about the accompanying program in general. If, at any point, you have issues with the accompanist’s preparation, attitude, scheduling issues or lack of communication, it is important that you contact me. It is my job to help resolve these situations before they turn into serious problems. If a problem should arise, please contact me (#33309 or thester@uh.edu) so that I can offer help to the student in question. Efficient communication and a positive attitude are the keys to the success of this system!

Please keep in mind that, in some cases, these young piano students have not had an abundance of experience in collaborative work. It also takes them time to learn music. Please treat them with kindness, understanding and respect. If I become aware of an occasion where they are not treated with kindness and respect, they will be released from the assignment.

One of my goals with the accompanying program is to help the piano students realize the wealth of knowledge that can be gained in an instrumental or voice lesson. I would like to transform the accompanying requirement into a positive learning experience. Hopefully, they will begin to see this as an opportunity to develop skills needed in order to survive in the world after they graduate; and moreover, to broaden their insight into music.

There may be situations when an assignment will include more than one instrumentalist or vocalist per hour. In these cases, the same rules apply concerning hourly totals. You do not need to work more than the total number of hours required! It is up to you to keep track of your hours and, if you use up all of your hours of accompanying, then either charge the student $15 for additional time or come see me with any complaints. I am here to help coordinate and deal with problems

If you are assigned to a vocalist, you are expected to attend lessons as soon as you are asked to do so by the vocalist. If you are assigned to an instrumentalist, and the piece seems rather difficult, you are allowed up to three weeks to practice it before you are expected to attend any lessons. I advise you to contact me if you are having trouble learning your music, one of the teaching assistants or I will be glad to help suggest practicing methods to attain command.

If you have concerns of any kind - please come see me first - so that we have a chance to communicate about your particular problem.

General accompanying load requirements are:
1. Undergraduate Performance Majors: 2 hours per week*
2. Graduate Performance Majors: 2 hours per week**
3. Graduate Collaborative Piano Majors: 3 hours per week**
4. Performer’s Certificate Majors: 2 hours per week**
5. Graduate ½ Accompanying Teaching Assistants: 5 hours per week
6. Graduate Accompanying Teaching Assistants: 10 hours per week
* Undergraduate Education majors are required to accompany for 1 hour per week and Bachelor of Arts students are not required to accompany at all.
** 2 additional hours are required of those Graduate and Performer’s Certificate scholarship students who are enrolled in applied lessons and are not enrolled in a large ensemble; therefore raising the total to 4 hours per week. MM Performance and Pedagogy Majors’ total will never surpass 3 hours per week. MM and DMA Collaborative Majors who are on scholarship must accompany 5 hours per week.

Thank you,
Mr. Hester