Delana Thomsen

Delana Thomsen is a highly accomplished solo and collaborative pianist who has given recitals throughout Europe and the United States, as well as master classes in Iceland and Bulgaria. In New York, she has appeared at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, the Bruno Walter Auditorium of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Nicholas Roerich Museum, and the Oyster Bay Beethoven Festival, as well as at Cami Hall in a recital sponsored by the Estonian Society. Ms. Thomsen has been affiliated with the Aspen Music Festival, the Juilliard School, and Mannes College of Music. She is a former member of the New York Bach Ensemble, the Engle Winds, and Windsong. She is the recipient of the Ruth Slenczynska Chamber Music Award and is in Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities.

Ms. Thomsen has accompanied the violin classes of the late Ivan Galamian and has been the pianist for the master classes of Dorothy Delay, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Eleanor Lawrence, Channing Robbins, Leonard Rose, and Mstislav Rostropovitch.

 Morgunbildithin Iceland wrote that Ms. Thomsen was “a first-rate musician [who] projects unusually lovable playing”; The Borba in Bulgaria wrote, “Ms. Thomsen plays with an authentic and sensitive style that gives the listener a sound picture of the boundless nuances of human life”; and The Music Connoisseur wrote, “the appealing duo displayed a high level of virtuosity throughout.”

Ms. Thomsen was the pianist and assistant conductor of the Dalton Chorale and for the past five years the organist and music director at the Hillsdale Methodist Church as well as the former pianist for the Hudson Valley Choral Society. In addition to freelancing in the New York City area, she is a member of the Thomsen/Belli duo-piano ensemble and SAGA Ensemble and performs regularly in concert with her bassoonist husband, Paul Stebbins.

She is a sought-after teacher and inspiring mentor, and her pupils have had great recognition. Recently several have performed in master classes with Jerome Lowenthal, Malcolm Bilson, Edna Golandsky, Gilbert Kalish, and Robert MacDonald. In addition to being on the MSM Precollege piano faculty, Ms. Thomsen is on the piano faculty of the Hoff-Barthelson Music School and has private teaching studios in New York City and Columbia County. She also has created and taught a summer piano ensemble program for students called “Musica Breva” and teaches at Hoff-Barthelson’s Summer Arts Program.

Her teachers have been Ruth Slenczynska (BM Piano Performance, Southern Illinois University), Arthur Balsam (MM Accompanying, MSM), Dalmo Carra (MSM Piano Faculty for three years of post graduate studies), and Elizabeth Moschetti Tobias (former assistant to Dorothy Taubman for 13 years of further postgraduate studies). 

Ms. Thomsen established the Precollege Sassa Maniotis Scholarship at Manhattan School of Music in memory of her beloved high school piano teacher in St. Louis, Missouri. It is awarded annually to one of her deserving pupils.

Manhattan School of Music Precollege faculty since 1978.