Education

D.M.A. in Piano Performance – University of Kentucky (2012)
M.M. in Piano Performance – University of Kentucky (2003)
B.M. in Piano Performance – Radford University (2000)

Biography

Dr. Tamara McCoy is a pianist and contralto that teaches at Alaska Pacific University and the University of Alaska Anchorage. She serves as Music Director at Anchorage Lutheran Church where she produces the Anchorage Lutheran Concert Series.

Tamara has served on the faculty of the University of Kentucky, the Music Institute of Lexington, University of Pikeville, the 2nd and 3rd International Piano Festivals of the City of Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil, and the Classical Minds International Guitar Festival. She has most notably performed in New York, Russia, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom and Brazil. In 2015, Tamara was awarded an Individual Artist Award from the Rasmuson Foundation to tour Alaska and England, where she made her vocal and pianistic London debut. In 2016, Tamara was a featured artist on the National Public Radio through the Houston Public Media podcast Classical Classroom, where she discussed, performed and recorded Liszt’s Totentanz. In 2017, Tamara was invited and continues to be a teaching artist in the Hiland Mountain Lullaby Project, in partnership with the Carnegie Hall Weill Music Institute. In 2018, Tamara won first prize in the Alaska State and the Northwest Regional NATS Adult Avocational Voice Auditions. In 2020, she was selected to perform her composition at the Lullaby Celebration Concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. In 2021, Tamara was awarded an Adaptation and Innovation performance grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts to facilitate an Alaskan tour. In 2022, she was awarded a Rasmuson Foundation Fellowship.

Tamara studies voice in the Swedish/Italian School with Nancy Caudill in Alaska and David L. Jones in New York. In addition, Tamara maintains an active teaching schedule for piano and voice students of all ages. She lives in Anchorage with her husband Eric and her children, Kenny and Molly.