The Scholar-in-Residence Program at Malvern Prep launched during the 2023-24 academic year. The main goals of the program are as follows:
Connect the Malvern Prep community with individuals who have achieved true excellence in a particular field by inviting them to serve as a scholar-in-residence for a full academic school year.
To provide opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to learn with and from this individual through a variety of events throughout the school year including all-school assemblies, classroom visits, teacher professional development days, and microcourses.
Malvern Prep's first scholar-in-residence for the 2023-24 school year is Dr. William Carr (Malvern Prep alumnus class of 1968) a world-class pianist, who will be centralizing Creativity as the main theme for the program for this year. When working with groups of students, teachers, or other community members, his goal is to hone in on how important creativity is within the learning and problem-solving processes. He will also be showcasing his own creativity and excellence by performing for the Malvern Community throughout the year.
Dr. Carr will provide our community with learning exercises that only a true expert in the field could provide. We are very excited about what this program will bring to our community and how it will elevate the skills and character of our students, helping them to work towards true excellence in their own chosen paths.
William Carr, Pianist, Steinway Artist, is Professor of Music and Piano and the former Chair of the Music Department at Immaculata University. A graduate of Malvern Prep from the class of 1968, Dr. Carr was named the first Scholar in Residence at Malvern Preparatory School. He was the recipient of the Irving Berlin Fellowship for graduate studies at Temple University and received a scholarship to the Graduate School of the Juilliard School in New York in the Professional Studies Program in piano performance to study with the world-renowned pedagogue, Adele Marcus. He continued studies with Adele Marcus for his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance which he received from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He earned post-doctoral performance certificates from the Munich Conservatory in Chamber Music and from the Liszt Conservatory in piano performance in Weimar, Germany through studies with concert pianist, Paul Badura-Skoda. He has performed in the master classes of Claudio Arrau, Joerg Demus, Leon Fleisher and Horacio Gutierrez. Dr. Carr has performed throughout the US and in many European cities. In 1988, he performed a solo recital at Carnegie Recital Hall. He gave two solo performances at the Isaac Stern Auditorium (Main Hall) of Carnegie Hall in 2002 and 2005 and gave solo performances in the Verizon Hall (Main Hall) of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in 2003 and 2004. In February of 2008, he performed on the main stage of the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.
Dr. Carr received a master’s degree in International relations/International Business from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He created Informance Associates, Inc. as a consulting organization for multinational corporations exploring issues of creative problem solving and decision making for business marketing, management, strategic planning and policy implementation. He has served as a consultant on creativity to the graduate schools of business at Columbia University, the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, the Aresty Institute of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and to over thirty Fortune 500 corporations both nationally and abroad. His recital/business presentations were given to corporations throughout northern Sweden. He has addressed and performed for nine national conferences of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) and has addressed and performed for two national conferences of the American Creativity Association.
In 1997/98, he was awarded the first Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award for Demonstrated Excellence in Teaching given at Immaculata University and subsequently served as the Director of the Honors program at Immaculata University. He continues to maintain an extensive schedule of solo performances and performances with area orchestras. He is the former Artist-in-Residence at Cabrini University and at Gwynedd-Mercy University and has served on the teaching faculties at Chestnut Hill College and at the School of Music at the Catholic University of America.
In the spring of 2006, William Carr was recognized as a Steinway artist and added to the international roster of Steinway Artists. He was a piano soloist at the Perelman Theatre of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in 2012 and in February of 2014, he was one of the featured Steinway artists on the 2nd Annual International Piano Series in Washington, D.C. held at the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at the Catholic University of America. He performed a solo recital at the Sala degli Specchi in the Academia dei Rozzi in Siena, Italy in 2014. More recent presentations, recitals and master classes have included the Delaware State Music Teachers Convention at the University of Delaware and the Steinway Society of South Jersey. He has served as an adjudicator for many piano competitions including the Steinway International North American Piano Competition in 2018 and more recently for the preliminary round of the Philadelphia Young Pianists International Academy led by concert pianist Ching –Yun Hu.
During his tenure as Chair of the Music Department at Immaculata University, he hosted the Symphony Orchestra of the Curtis Institute of Music for performances at Immaculata University’s Alumnae Hall in February of 2017, for three concert performances in 2018- 2019 at and again for three engagements in October of 2019 and in January and April of 2020. Dr. Carr was recognized in September 2016 with the “Distinguished Alumni Award” from the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University. For the past five years, he has been recognized as one of the Top Teachers by the Steinway Piano Corporation of America. A 1968 graduate of the Malvern Preparatory School, he has been a professor of music and piano at Immaculata University since 1993.
