Marshall alumnus to give piano recital

Dr. Leslie Petteys, professor of piano at Marshall, invited McCoy to perform selections from his master’s recital. He received his Master of Music degree in the fall of 2010 from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and is currently the Organ Scholar at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Honolulu.

“It is not an automatic thing that those who have gone off and gotten master’s degrees return here and present their programs, but Yuri has family, friends and colleagues here,” Petteys said. “I like to invite our pianists back so the current students can see what their studio mates have achieved … often I have the returning grad student talk with my current students.”

McCoy received his B.F.A. degree magna cum laude from Marshall in 2008. While pursuing the degree, he also played violin with both the Huntington Symphony and the Marshall University Orchestra and held several organ posts in and around Huntington, most recently at St. John’s Episcopal Church. As an undergraduate, he was the winner of the Concert of Soloists Competition and the Belle and Lynum Jackson Competition at Marshall, as well as the West Virginia Music Teachers Association Mountain State Collegiate Piano Competition.

In addition to Petteys, McCoy has studied under Harriet Tucker and Al Zabel in Huntington and with Dr. Thomas Yee and Dr. Jonathan Korth at the University of Hawai'i. In 2008, he was the only pianist from the University of Hawai'i selected to perform in a master class given by the legendary pianist Leon Fleisher.