​The Frost Prep Advanced Piano Program is a division of the Frost School of Music Preparatory Program at the University of Miami. Designed as an exclusive program for piano students who are ready for more intensive and immersive studies, this program prepares them for a career in the music world and for the best universities in the country and abroad. The program also creates a connection between pre-college and college studies, the #FrostLink, that shapes the future of talented and promising pianists from a very young age and accompanies them to their university education. Although the program is only five years old, it already counts three alumni who are now majoring in Piano Performance at the Frost School of Music, all on a full scholarship.

The Advanced Piano Program was created by Dr. Luca Cubisino in 2019 thanks to the support of Frost Prep Director Dr. Megan Walsh and Frost School of Music Dean Shelton Berg as well as the Frost Department of Keyboard Performance Faculty. Soon after the first few months of activity, the program faced the pandemic disruption and the enormous hardship it generated in the arts industry. Nevertheless, the program has been experiencing an increase in number of students and achievements, foreseeing an exponential growth in the upcoming years. Its geographic position, Miami’s extraordinary cultural turn of the past years, and the fact that it is a leading reality in the Southeast of the United States, make this program unique and strategic.

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Students of the program have been winning top prizes in more than 40 piano competitions, awarded scholarships from the Coral Gables Jr. Music Club, Florida Federation of Music Clubs, Miami Music Teachers Foundation, Black Violin Foundation, Chopin Foundation of the United States, etc., and playing with major orchestras of South Florida, including the Greater Miami Youth Symphony, Orchestra Miami, and the Side-by-Side Orchestra of the New World Symphony. Moreover, our
students have been admitted into the undergraduate programs of major universities (some with full scholarship) such as the Frost School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes School of Music, Peabody Conservatory, NewYork University, Royal College and Royal Academy of Music in London, and so forth.

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Since its establishment and with a minimal budget, the Advanced Piano Program has been able to help students with scholarships and to invite some of the most celebrated pianists and pedagogues of today’s musical scene for masterclasses and events. This list includes names such as Angela Hewitt, one of the world’s leading concert pianists; Michelle Cann, Professor and Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano at the Curtis Institute of Music; Zlata Chochieva, whose complete Chopin Études have been listed by Gramophone among the 10 greatest Chopin recordings; and Victor Rosenbaum, NEC Faculty for 55 consecutive years.

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The Advanced Piano Program also creates learning opportunities not only for its students but also for members of the Coral Gables community who cultivate an interest in music. Our students come from all over South Florida bringing to Coral Gables cultural enrichment and endless talent because they decide not to leave South Florida for other pre-college programs, such as Juilliard’s or NEC’s, and stay to study in our program to follow their musical aspirations.