2026 Live Adjudicators

Dr. Kent McWilliams has enjoyed a successful performing career since his debut in Rachmaninov’s Piano Third Concerto with the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has been an award winner at competitions of Porto (Portugal), the Regina Symphony and the Canadian National Competitive Festival of Music. Kent has also performed live recitals and concertos on the CBC in Canada and the ABC in Australia.

Dr. McWilliams has judged the national finals of the MTNA competition, the Canadian Music Competitions, and the Canadian Chopin Competition as well as numerous regional competitions and MTNA auditions in 25 states and provinces. He has also been an examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music for over 25 years and currently serves as the Senior Lead Examiner. Kent is also a very experienced clinician, having presented performance and pedagogy workshops to teachers at many national events.

Kent served as Professor of Piano at St. Olaf College for 18 years before accepting the position of Director of the School of Music at Kent State University. He recently moved to the Washington, DC region where he teaches at the University of Mary Washington and privately at Main Street Music Studios in Fairfax, Virginia. He plays chamber music regularly with the Main Street Chamber Players. He has been profoundly dedicated to his students who have earned prizes at regional and national competitions in the US and Canada, including 15 students who won the Concerto Competition at St. Olaf College. Many of his students have gone on to successful careers as pianists and pedagogues at several universities across the US.

Kent holds a Doctorate in Piano Performance from the University of Montreal where he studied with Marc Durand. He studied in Poland with Andrzej Jasinski (head juror of the Chopin International Piano Competition) while researching the Polish folk elements in Chopin’s Mazurkas for his doctoral dissertation. Kent also earned an Artist Diploma under Oleg Maisenberg at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, Germany and completed Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees with Boris Lysenko at the University of Toronto.