Sharon Brown Cheston

Dr. Sharon Brown Cheston studied music theory with Alvaretta West and James Feldman. She is passionately interested in harmonic complexity preference, as reflected in her dissertation and thesis work, as well as in her lectures and teaching regarding chord substitutions in African- American Gospel Music and in popular music. She studied composition with Ed London, Bain Murray, and Eugene O’Brien. She is a registered Suzuki piano teacher with Dalcroze Eurhythmics Enrichment credit, as she completed Introduction to Dalcroze for Suzuki Teachers with Jeremy Dittus. Her piano teachers include Andrius Kuprevicius, James Tannenbaum, Robert Mayerovitch, Gary Graning, and Claracy B. Kimbrough, including piano pedagogy with Evelyn Gott. She studied ethnomusicology with T. Temple Tuttle and voice with Melvin Hakola and Elizabeth Unis Chesko. As a doctoral student at Case Western Reserve University, Cheston received the Graduate Dean’s Instructional Excellence Award in Recognition of Providing Outstanding Primary Instruction as a Graduate Assistant when she taught Choral Materials and Methods.

As a collaborative pianist, the Ivy-Cheston Piano Duo was featured as guest performers with the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, performing compositions for two pianos, four hands and orchestra, with the orchestra performing one of her arrangements and orchestrations. An expert in African-American Gospel Music, Cheston has lectured on the topics of African-American Gospel Music Piano Accompaniment Performance Practices and Music in Worship, and has held numerous choral music and other positions in universities, public schools, and churches throughout northeast Ohio, including Director of Worship and pianist/organist. She has served as adjudicator and guest conductor at choral festivals and vocal and instrumental contests. As an artist-in-residence at the Cleveland School of the Arts, she composed and orchestrated music scores for mainstage productions performed in the Playhouse Square Entertainment Center, including Chicken Little, which received the Cleveland Critic’s Circle Carolyn Reid Award for Educational Theater and The Northern Ohio Live Magazine Award of Achievement in Theater. She also composed the children’s worship songbook series, Praise with Pizzazz: Contemporary Praise Chorus Scripture Songs Volumes 1 and 2 and numerous compositions. She has performed on piano in theater orchestra pits, including Karamu Theater, Cleveland Playhouse, and at NightTown and other jazz venues with Reggie Pittman, trumpet. Cheston served as the Accord Community Chorus Assistant Chorus Master for the Ohio premiere of Dr. H. Leslie Adams’ cantata, The Righteous Man, with the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of Dwight Oltman. Cheston was commissioned by the Oberlin Community Youth Choir to compose Freedom Medley, performed with Oberlin Conservatory of Music voice and instrumental students. Cheston has been a member of the Cleveland Orchestra Blossom Music Chorus.

Cheston teaches piano and music theory at Tiamoyo Music Academy, where one of her students performed in the 2024 101 Pianists with Lang Lang Concert. She serves as rehearsal assistant for the Cleveland Orchestra Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Chorus, assisting with their preparation for The Cleveland Orchestra’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Concert. Cheston is a Cuyahoga Community College Vocal Arts Mastery Summer Program faculty member and Piano Summer Program faculty member. Cheston is music director of Tiamoyo Chorale and pianist for the Tiamoyo Trio.