Biography, Leslie Hammes owner and instructor, Ocala Piano Conservatory

     Leslie Hammes, known to her students as Ms Leslie began studying piano at age 5 and enjoyed performing from the very beginning. Because her family was in the military, she had many teachers growing up.

     Ms Leslie earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Dayton in 1969.  While there, she was a prize winner in the first National Musical Scholarship Association Contest in Cincinnati (now Musical Teachers National Association). She also began a lifetime pursuit of performing in and auditing Master Classes with Internationally recognized concert pianists. During her college days, she took Master Classes with David Bar-Illan, Loren Hollander and Lytle Powell. She has also performed in or audited Master Classes with Eugene List, Garrick Ohlsson, Abby Simon, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Luis de Mauro Castro, Robert Levin, Phillip Kawin, Seta Tanyel and Angela Chang among others.

      After college she studied with Powell Everhart, himself a student of the great French pianist Isadore Phillipe. She earned her performance Diploma in 1979 from the Royal Schools of Music, England. 

      From 1979 through 1982, Ms Leslie studied with husband and wife team, Audley and Barbara Wasson both of whom studied with Rudolf Ganz and Rachmaninoff in Chicago. Additionally, Barbara studied with the esteemed Madame Rosina Lhevinne and Sasha Gorodnitsky at Julliard. The Wassons’ extraordinary program served as a model for the policies and procedures now in place at the Ocala Piano Conservatory.

      Ms Leslie taught piano from 1968 through 1981. At that point she put teaching aside (temporarily) for a career as a Naval Officer.  During those years she continued to perform. She was the pianist for the Virginia Beach Orchestra for four years where she soloed with a piano concerto in 1983. She began studying with internationally acclaimed concert pianist Susan Starr in 1982 with whom she continues to study to this day. During her time in the Navy she was afforded the opportunity to attend the Harvard Graduate School of Education (M.ED in Educational Psychology, 1989). Upon her retirement from the Navy, she and her husband Richard moved to Ocala where she soon became the pianist for the Central Florida Symphony for four years. She resumed teaching in 2000 and formed the Conservatory in 2002.

      Ms Leslie is a member of the National Piano Teachers Guild, The National Federation of Music Clubs and Music Teachers National Association. In 2007 she founded the Central Florida Classical Piano Foundation. The Foundation’s first project was to import her teacher, Susan Starr, for a Master Class and Concert in Ocala.

       In addition to coaching lessons with Susan Starr, Ms Leslie also studies with Mary Lou Krosnick, who was a student of the great pedagogue of the last century, Madame Isabella Vengerova, and also Rosina Lhevinne at Julliard.

        According to Ms Leslie, “I am passionate about teaching.”  The pedigree of teachers with whom Ms Leslie has studied – and with whom she continues to study – is truly impressive. This conveys, directly to the students she teaches.