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Artina McCain Highlight
Artina McCain
Assistant Professor of Piano,
Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis
For me as a performer, I’ve had to define myself and figure out ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What do I have that’s unique to give?’—in many ways, I don’t fit into the norm, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t deserve to be there.
About Artina
- Growing up, she would always be singing around the house—turns out, she can’t sing, so her mother enrolled her in piano lessons when she was nine.
- Even though she started playing piano relatively late by most standards, she fell in love with it and knew early on that she wanted to continue studying it throughout her life.
- She attended a performing arts high school and then proceeded to complete bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in music.
- Suffered a performance injury in her mid-20s that delayed her doctoral studies and prevented her from playing piano for nearly six years—she now advocates for performance injury prevention.
- Says she often suffers from imposter syndrome and self-doubt, but makes an effort to capitalize on her unique strengths and focuses on the end goal.
- Believes that she has a “divine purpose” to do what she does and that it is exactly what she is meant to be doing; uses this as her motivation to keep going.
- Says that true success is taking whatever your skilled in and giving that back to the world—for her, being the best teacher she can be is how she pays it forward.
- She now serves as an assistant professor of piano at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis and enjoys an active career as a solo performer.
