D.M., M.M. (Indiana University); BMus, (University of Ottawa, Canada); A.R.C.T., (Royal Conservatory of Music, University of Toronto), Certificate in Injury Preventive Piano Technique (Salem College). Piano professors with whom Dr. Piitz has studied include Menahem Pressler, Leonard Hokanson, Barbara Lister-Sink, Jean-Paul Sevilla, and Helgi Fatovic.

Pianist, Lori Piitz, has lived, performed and taught in both North America and Europe. Prior to moving to Virginia, Ms. Piitz lived in Germany for 9 years where she participated in recitals for the Wagner Society and the New Music Association of Germany, as well as at the International Flute Congress in Frankfurt. A frequent soloist with the Neusäss Chamber Orchestra, she also presented a cycle of Beethoven works for cello and piano, with Professor Helga Winold, in Munich and Augsburg. Ms. Piitz has been a guest at the Festival of the Sound in Canada, the Schleswig-Holstein and Villa Musica Festivals in Germany, and at the Mozart Bicentennial Series in Avery Fisher Hall, New York. She and her duet partner, Gabriel Dobner, have performed in Canada, Europe and the United States, including the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. In 2006 they returned to Germany to present recitals commemorating the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth.

Ms. Piitz holds a Bachelors degree in piano performance from the University of Ottawa where she was awarded the prestigious 'Isobel Firestone' performance scholarship. She received two full scholarships to the Banff Center of Fine Arts where she worked with Martin Isepp and Marek Jablonski. Ms. Piitz has been heard on both the French and English networks of CBC Radio, both as a soloist and chamber musician. She has been a winner in the Canadian Music Competitions (CMC) and was a finalist in CBC television's “Virtuoses en Herbe” Competition.

Since joining the piano faculty of James Madison University in 2002, Ms. Piitz has participated in the Contemporary Music Festival at JMU, the Bach Festival at EMU, the Richmond Chamber Music Festival and the Staunton Music Festival. Previous teaching engagements include the University of Ottawa, Indiana University, Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg and the Augsburg/Nürnberg Hochschule für Musik.